Frontend Semiconductor
Manufacturing
Flexciton helps wafer fabs unlock capacity, cut cycle times, and improve throughput across the most complex production environments.
In semiconductor manufacturing, frontend refers to the first stage of production, where the active electronic components of a chip are created directly on the silicon wafer. Production is characterised by extremely high complexity, long cycle times, and tight process dependencies created by:
Reentrant flows
Wafers re-enter the same tool and complete the same proceszs step multiple times.
Strict timelink constraints
Wafers can only spend a certain amount of time in between 2 or more process steps.
High product mix
High product mix with many tool-specific dependencies cause bottlenecks
Balancing trade-offs
Engineers must balance throughput, queue time, batch sizes and other KPIs pulling in opposite directions.
Complexity you can’t ignore
Effective planning and scheduling is essential to handle the complexity of front end production. Using rules-based legacy software or manual methods can lead to reduced efficiency and damaged KPIs.
Hidden bottlenecks reduce throughput
Critical tools become over or under-utilised, creating queues that limit overall fab throughput and reduce operational efficiency
Cycle times and WIP grow unpredictably
Inefficient dispatching and batching lead to extended, variable cycle times and higher WIP inventory, reducing responsiveness.
Manual replanning and scheduling uses critical resources
Production plans and schedules are frequently infeasible or invalidated by real-time changes that legacy systems can’t react to.
Flexciton APS was designed for complexity
We use mathematical optimization because complex environments demand more than fixed rules. It continuously evaluates billions of scenarios to identify the best possible decisions—balancing constraints, objectives, and trade-offs. This forms the core of our autonomous planning and scheduling technology, which dynamically adapts to real-time changes on the fab floor to keep production running at peak efficiency. It’s built to handle what existing technologies can’t.
Overcome challenges in every
aspect of fab operations
Flexciton uncovers hidden capacity by optimizing how existing tools and resources are used across the fab. This enables fabs to maximize throughput without the need for new capital investment, helping meet fab objectives efficiently and flexibly.
By autonomising complex planning and scheduling decisions, Flexciton reduces reliance on manual intervention and scarce engineering resources. This allows fabs to maintain high performance and responsiveness, even with limited staff, while freeing up teams to focus on higher-value tasks.
Flexciton dynamically adjusts plans and schedules in response to changing conditions, helping fabs stay aligned with customer deadlines. By improving predictability and flow, it increases on-time delivery rates—even in highly variable or constrained environments.
By enabling better decision-making across complex constraints and volatile demand, Flexciton improves tool utilisation, reducing bottlenecks, and adapting plans in real time. It helps fabs lower costs not just in peak production, but also during downturns, when efficiency and responsiveness are critical to maintaining profitability.
Guaranteed KPI improvements
Flexciton’s Autonomous Technology empowers chip manufacturers to maximise production performance with far greater confidence. By replacing outdated, reactive systems with intelligent, real time data-driven decision-making, we deliver optimised plans and schedules—enabling fabs to run with greater precision and autonomy.
Increase in throughput in the photo area
Reduction in timelink violations in the diffusion area
Increase in batch size across the diffusion area
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