Applied Materials,
Inc. today announced its breakthrough Applied SmartSched system, the
semiconductor industry's first predictive scheduling solution for optimizing the
movement of wafers through the lithography cell - the most complex and
capital-intensive area of the fab. Demonstrated to reduce cycle time and
increase tool utilization, the SmartSched system enables chipmakers to expand
fab capacity without purchasing new lithography equipment - thus boosting their
revenue and shortening delivery times.
"Augmenting customers' existing factory automation systems, SmartSched offers
a powerful strategy to increase return on existing lithography assets and can
quickly pay for itself within one year."
The SmartSched system uses
proprietary predictive algorithms to evaluate key aspects of the litho cell and
the factory in real time. The system reacts to changing delivery priorities, and
upstream and downstream events, to immediately deliver production schedule
updates tailored to meet customers' individual business objectives.
"Maintaining optimum scheduling in a fast-changing environment has long been
a challenge for semiconductor manufacturers. The SmartSched system is the first
predictive system to meet this challenge, delivering effective schedules for
even the most complex fab operation," said Charlie Pappis, vice president and
general manager of Applied Global Services. "Augmenting customers' existing
factory automation systems, SmartSched offers a powerful strategy to increase
return on existing lithography assets and can quickly pay for itself within one
year."
To enable fast deployment, the SmartSched system features pre-built
lithography operating scenarios, covering conventional optical and emerging
lithography techniques, and is easily customized to meet customers' specific
requirements. In addition, the SmartSched system's modular architecture is
extendable for improving the efficiency of other complex fab areas such as wet
clean, diffusion and ion implantation.
The SmartSched system is built on Applied's proven Advanced Productivity
software platform that includes capacity planning, scheduling, dispatching and
simulation technologies that are used by virtually every leading 300mm fab
worldwide. Together, they form a unique, integrated solution for optimum
manufacturing operations based on the most accurate planning processes.