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Webinar: Flexciton and Seagate Case Study

Wafer fabrication is not only a highly complex manufacturing process but also capital intensive. With the cost of a single new 300mm fab now exceeding $1bn and with some tools costing in excess of $40m, fixed costs are significant and demand high fab utilization. 

In an environment where capacity and production efficiency is key to continued cost reductions, the benefit of high-quality scheduling is huge to factory efficiency. It enables higher utilization of expensive toolsets (e.g., photolithography and etch), reduces cycle times and ensures on-time delivery.

We were thrilled to present with Seagate Technology once more. Jamie Potter, CEO & Co-founder of Flexciton and Tina O'Donnell, Systems Engineering Manager from Seagate discussed advanced scheduling technology and its impact on wafer fab production performance.

The webinar was hosted by SEMI Europe and moderated by TechWorks NMI.

June 15th, 5pm CEST / 4pm BST.‍

Watch this case study webinar to learn how Seagate is successfully using smart scheduling technology to optimize fab efficiency.

This webinar has now been removed from our website. To get exclusive access to the webinar, please get in touch by clicking here.

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Wrestling with Recipes

Insightful experiments expose the weakness of limiting the number of recipes enabled on a tool. The key findings are that this limitation can lead to an increase in fab cycle times by more than 40 percent.

Why Optimized Scheduling is the Answer to Balancing Reticle Moves and Cycle Time

The scarcity and fragility of reticles presents fab operators with a tradeoff that we have assessed by investigating three case studies where Flexciton's intelligent scheduler has been used to explore the different outcomes.

To Batch or Not to Batch?

Batch tools are purposefully built to process two or more lots in parallel. However, due to the complexity and volatility of the wafer fabrication environment, each day wafer fabs are challenged to make complicated batching decisions.

Understanding the Trade-offs in Preventative Maintenance for an Optimized Fab Performance

The tools used in a fabrication process are extremely sophisticated; requiring an extensive preventive maintenance regime to ensure reliable production. A big challenge faced by fab managers is getting in place optimal scheduling of preventative maintenance whilst still meeting their production KPIs.

User-focused Digitalisation: Empowering Wafer Fab Operators with Intelligent Software

In the challenge of digitising semiconductor wafer fabs, Flexciton aspires to play a pivotal role in cultivating highly skilled operators and managers—individuals who are empowered by our technology rather than being replaced by it. Learn more about our customer-centric approach in this blog from Valentina.

Multi-objective Fab Scheduling: Exploring Scenarios and Tradeoffs for Better Decision Making

Building and maintaining any form of scheduling solution to be flexible yet robust is not an easy undertaking. Commonly, fab managers have resorted to rule-based dispatch systems or other discrete-event simulation software that asks a simple question: do I care more about getting wafers out the door, or reducing the cycle time of those wafers?

The Flex Factor with... Amar

On this month's edition of The Flex Factor, we're introducing Amar. Solutions engineer by day and the front man of Flexciton's band by night, find out a bit more about him and what he does for the team.

Switching to Autonomous Scheduling: What is the Impact on Your Fab?

From guaranteed KPI improvements to reducing fab workload by 50%, this blog introduces some of the benefits of Autonomous Scheduling Technology (AST) and how it contrasts with the scheduling status quo.

Scheduling as a Cornerstone of the Smart Factory [Part 1]

The problem with complex systems is that there’s so much variability and interaction, it's hard to get actionable insights from data. In Part 1 of this blog, Ben Van Damme explains that instead of accepting the complex nature of a fab, factories can control it using advanced scheduling.

Security and the Cloud: Should We Really Keep Everything On-prem?

Ray Cooke delves into the pivotal considerations surrounding cloud adoption in the context of wafer fabrication. For those reading sceptically, uncertain about the merits of cloud integration, or perhaps prompted by concerns about lagging behind competitors—this blog endeavours to shed light on key areas of relevance.

Scheduling Time Constraints in Wafer Fabrication

In a highly complex wafer fabrication environment, even the most advanced fabs struggle with scheduling time constraints. Begun Efeoglu Sanli, one of our Optimization Engineers, reviews a recently published technical paper on this particular subject.

Scheduling as a Cornerstone of the Smart Factory [Part 2]

In Part 2 of this blog, Ben Van Damme delves further into the potential of advanced optimization-based scheduling for wafer fabs in the not too distant future.

Scheduling Innovations: Academic Research and its Adoption in the Semiconductor Industry

This article focuses on innovations in scheduling: algorithms which assign lots to machines, decide in which order they should run, and ensure any required secondary resources are available.

Position Vacant: Are Chip Companies Really Running Out Of People?

The semiconductor industry worries that it won’t have enough workers to run its new fabs. But there’s a labour problem right now at legacy facilities. Could disruptive technologies help to solve this problem?

Maximising Wafer Fab Performance: Harnessing the Cloud's Competitive Edge

To cloud, or not cloud, that is the question. As other industries make the leap towards cloud technology, uptake with chipmakers continues to lag behind. In this article, Laurence explores the potential benefits of cloud adoption to equip Fab Managers with the motivation to reconsider the question.

Managing The Human Side Of Smart Manufacturing

Change management is just as important as new technology in a successful implementation. Jamie Potter has his say on what he thinks service providers can do differently to help fabs adopt new technologies.

Looking Into The Future: How Advanced Optimization Can Manage Timelink Constraints (Part 1)

Timelinks are one of the most challenging aspects of a wafer fab to navigate and significantly increase the complexity of scheduling it. We take a dive into a case study that shows how optimization can be used to manage timelinks to alleviate pressure on bottleneck tools.

Machine Says No – Is There A Way Around The Legacy Equipment Shortage?

Manufacturing equipment makers are under pressure to meet new fabs’ demands, with a serious knock-on effect for legacy chip makers. But can they increase capacity without increasing their number of tools?

Looking Into The Future: How Advanced Optimization Can Manage Timelink Constraints (Part 2)

In our second case study, we consider a more complex problem where a trade-off must be made between the cycle time of high priority lots and violating certain timelinks.

Is It Time to Redefine the UK's Role Within the Semiconductor Industry?

Jamie shares his thoughts on the UK’s £1bn semiconductor strategy, why he thinks there's untapped potential with disruptive technology, and how the UK’s abundant talent pool could be the key for our growth in the global industry.

Has the EU Chips Act Failed Before it's Started? Industry Strategy Symposium 2023

The big theme at this year’s SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) conference was ‘How does Europe fulfil its ambition by 2030’. Jamie Potter shares his thoughts on the steps being taken to achieve its ambitious goal.

It’s Time For The Semiconductor Industry To Embrace Smart Manufacturing

With industries around the world still being hit by semiconductor shortages, chip companies need to embrace smart manufacturing practices to boost production. In this blog, we talk about what those practices are and how to accelerate their adoption.

Is Fear Holding Back The Chip Industry’s Future In The Cloud?

The semiconductor industry is at the cutting edge of technology – so why is it still so nervous about the cloud? Persisting with an outmoded security model means missing out on significant gains in manufacturing.

Is It Possible to Improve Performance and Be More Energy Efficient?

The semiconductor industry needs to become more sustainable in a world of increasing demand – optimization holds the key.

Goodhart’s Law and the Pitfalls of Targeting Load Port Utilisation on Photo Tools

In this blog, Dominic Bealby-Wright, one of our optimization engineers, takes a look Goodhart's Law and its relation to load port utilisation on tools in the photolithography area.

Investigating Operational Decisions and Their Impact on Energy Efficiency in Wafer Fabs

Chipmakers will encounter major challenges before the end of the decade in their quest to achieve stringent emissions goals. In light of this, we are working on an initiative to explore innovative approaches for reducing the carbon impact of the semiconductor sector.

Flexciton’s Software Trial at Renesas Tackles One of the Most Complex Aspects of Fab Scheduling

Timelinks are one of the most challenging scheduling problems found in a wafer fab and were causing a particular problem for Renesas Electronics' US fab. After seeing the potential performance gains with our software trial, they decided to go ahead with full implementation.

Heuristics or Mathematical Optimization: Which is the Best Method for Wafer Fab Scheduling?

Scheduling a wafer fab to run optimally is one of the most challenging mathematical problems that exists in modern-day manufacturing. Why?

Innovate UK invests in breakthrough technology developed by Flexciton and Seagate

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, has invested in Flexciton and Seagate Technology's production planning project to help improve UK semiconductor manufacturing.

Harnessing AI's Potential: Revolutionizing Semiconductor Manufacturing

AI has unquestionably stood out as the prevailing technological theme of the year. This wave of innovation begs the question: how can the semiconductor industry, which stands at the heart of technological progress, leverage AI to navigate its own intricate challenges?

Flexciton and Seagate Technology to Present at SEMI's Upcoming FutureFab Solutions Webinar

What will the future of wafer fabrication look like? With innovative AI-driven technologies paving the way for significant improvements in efficiency, quality and on-time delivery whilst also driving down costs – chip manufacturers need to be paying close attention.

Fab-Wide Scheduling of Semiconductor Plants: A Large-Scale Industrial Deployment Case Study

Decision-making in wafer fabs is a two-level problem. On one hand, fab-wide scheduling is tasked with the strategic management of factory assets. On the other hand, toolset-level scheduling focuses on the operation of individual work centres.

EU Chips Act Proposes €43 Billion Of Support – But How Will It Be Spent?

The European Commission has set out an ambitious plan to double the EU’s share of the semiconductor market to 20% by 2030. But is increasing production capacity the way forward? In this blog, we look at where they should and shouldn’t be spending their money to achieve this aim.

Flexciton Announces £15M Series A to Boost the Capability of the Global Semiconductor Industry

Since its inception, Flexciton has received over £21m in funding, with its recent Series A round raising a total of £15m. The Series A investment will be used for hiring across different areas of the team.

Flexciton Return to Present at FMF 2022 For This Year's SEMICON Europa

This year, Flexciton will be returning to Munich, Germany for SEMICON Europa and the 2022 Fab Management Forum and we're thrilled to announce that we'll be silver sponsors of the event!

Flexciton Cofounders Reflect on Their Five Year Journey

The past 12 months have been intensely positive, bringing new exciting projects and allowing the company to accelerate its growth. We took this opportunity and asked Flexciton's cofounders to reflect on their journey.

C is for Cycle Time [Part 1]

This two-part article aims to explain how we can improve cycle time in front-end semiconductor manufacturing through innovative solutions. In part 1, we discuss the importance of cycle time for manufacturers and introduce the operating curve to relate cycle time to factory utilization.

C is for Cycle Time [Part 2]

In part 2, Dennis explores strategies to enhance cycle time through advanced scheduling solutions, contrasting them with traditional methods. He uses the operating curve, this time to demonstrate how AI scheduling and operational factors, such as product mix, can significantly impact cycle time.

B is for Batching

In the second instalment of the Flexciton Tech Glossary Series, we're taking you on an insightful journey through the world of batching. Find out about the many complexities of batching, the existing methods of solving the problem and the wider solution space.

Could Reinforcement Learning Play a Part in the Future of Wafer Fab Scheduling? [Tech Paper Review]

Jannik Post – one of our optimization engineers – takes a look at the background of the Reinforcement Learning methodology, before reviewing two recent publications which apply Reinforcement Learning to scheduling problems.

Come and Visit Our Booth at SEMICON West This July!

From 11–13 July 2023, Flexciton will be returning to San Francisco for this the latest edition of SEMICON West. And this time, we’ll be joining the Techworks / NMI members zone, where we will have our own stand – located at booth 945.

A is for AI

We are excited to introduce the Flexciton Tech Glossary Blog Series: A deep dive into the A-Z of semiconductor technology and innovation. In the first edition of the series, Ioannis Konstantelos and Dennis Xenos take a dive into AI and its applications in semiconductor manufacturing.

A Hot Topic: What Makes Scheduling the Diffusion Area so Challenging? [Tech Paper Review]

The diffusion area is particularly important to the smooth operation of a wafer fab. Not only does it receive raw wafers at the very beginning of the fabrication process but it also interacts with many other areas of the fab.

A Fab Manager's Dilemma: Maintenance Scheduling vs Productivity KPIs

A typical approach is to plan maintenance activities ahead of time using simple rules-based models, where the maintenance is run on a particular day, at a particular time. The consequence of such approach, however, is optimising maintenance timing at the expense of production KPIs such as cycle time and throughput.

Autonomous Scheduling: A Tale of Three Taxis

At Flexciton, we often talk about how autonomous scheduling allows wafer fabs to surpass the need for maintaining many rules to enable the behaviours they want at different toolsets. Seb Steele offers an analogy to show how significant the difference is.

Accelerating the Future Panel Discussion: Key Takeaways from Industry Leaders

Staying ahead in smart manufacturing technologies has become paramount for global competitiveness. This topic was the focal point of the recent panel discussion webinar hosted by Flexciton.

Five Reasons Why Your Wafer Fab Should Be Using Hybrid Optimization Scheduling

Fabs usually approach scheduling in one of two ways; the heuristic approach, which is fast but not optimal and the mathematical approach, which is optimal but time-consuming. In order to attain optimal results that are able to keep up with changes on the factory floor – fabs should consider a hybrid approach.

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