There’s no doubt that the most effective application of semiconductor equipment is in the manufacture of electronic devices. You can imagine a world without the smartphone you use daily. That is what it probably would be if there were no semiconductor equipment in the world.

However, most people barely know anything about how the world benefits from semiconductor equipment. That’s what this article seeks to help people learn today. It will discuss all you need to know about semiconductor equipment applications in the manufacturing world.

Let’s get started by first understanding what semiconductors are.

What Are Semiconductors?

The first step to understanding how semiconductors help is knowing what they are. Well, they are materials that have conductivity between conductors. These are generally metals, and they can get used in various industries, especially in electronic device manufacturing, as said earlier.

Semiconductors have properties that make them unique from other materials. For instance, they can conduct electricity in certain conditions, thus the use of the name ‘semi .’ It is easy to control how they conduct electricity, making them perfect for the manufacture of different electronic parts.

Some other properties of semiconductors include:

• They act as insulators at zero kelvin but become conductors at increasing temperatures.
• They are small, weigh less than conductors, and have lesser power losses.
• They have higher sensitivity than conductors but lower than insulators.
• When temperature increases, their resistance decreases, and vice versa

Examples of semiconductors include gallium arsenide, germanium, and silicon. You can find items like silicone rubber flexible heaters or film heaters made using semiconductors. It is also common to find semiconductors in solar cells, laser diodes, and many other items.

Application of Semiconductor in Daily Life

As mentioned before, the various electronic devices you use daily have semiconductors. Thus, you interact with them daily, and you may not realize it most of the time. We have already mentioned some of the applications of semiconductors in our daily lives.

Here are the most common:

• Manufacture of devices like phones, computers, calculators, etc.
• Manufacture of solar devices and parts like solar plates
• Control of temperatures in electronic rice cookers
• Used in 3D printing machines
• Used in self-driving cars
• Used in temperature sensors for air conditioners

Those are the major applications of semiconductors in the world today. We cannot overstate the various uses you can put semiconductors into. As said before, their properties, especially in how they conduct electricity, make them ideal for manufacturing various items.

For instance, they help make silicone rubber, polyester and Kapton heaters. Hi-heat industries, a key player in the manufacturing sector, uses semiconductors as a primary raw material. So many other industries use these materials to make safe, reliable, and durable products for sale.

Why Are Semiconductors Used?

Semiconductors get used in manufacturing various items. The reasons for using them may differ depending on what item is getting manufactured. However, most reasons connect to the unique properties of semiconductors. This is especially regarding how they conduct electricity.

As said earlier, it is easy to control the electrical conductivity of semiconductors. You can do this by doping either phosphorus or boron in a silicon semiconductor to get an n-type of p-type semiconductor. This makes them ideal for the making of the various parts mentioned earlier.

For a complete novice who is learning, the doping process entails adding impurities to the semiconductors. The impurities used here are several suitable replacement atoms. Adding them increases semiconductors’ conductivity, making them ideal for industrial use.

Advantages of Semiconductors

Flexible heaters silicone rubber used in industries offer excellent temperature control and heat distribution. This is because of the unique properties of semiconductors listed before. So, what benefits do these properties bring to the manufacturing world? They include;

• Better portability – As mentioned earlier, semiconductors are small and weigh less than most insulators and conductors. Equipment made from semiconductors is therefore highly portable.
• Require less power – Semiconductors are known for producing a high output voltage, as you may see with flexible silicone heaters. However, they require a lot less energy to do this.
• Shockproof devices – Semiconductors are solid-state devices, a feature that makes them shockproof. This makes them ideal for use in manufacturing a lot of home equipment.
• Long lifespan – devices made from semiconductors can last longer than those made from conductors. This makes the material more reliable for the manufacture of various equipment.’
• Noise-free – Semiconductors do not make any irritating noises when in operation. This makes devices made from this material to be noise-free.

Those are the significant advantages of using semiconductors in industries. As you can see, these materials offer a wide range of benefits that you cannot get with conductors. The best benefit most likely is how they allow users to decide the temperatures they need for their work.

In short, you do not get limited in any way when using semiconductors. It is possible to make handheld devices using them as raw materials. They’ll require less power to operate, be highly portable because of their small size and weight, and be also shockproof for better handling.

The post Applications of Semiconductor Equipment and Manufacturing appeared first on Proche.

The wafer handling robots has the capability to depict about the requirements for the semiconductors quartz and wafer handling for so long. The semiconductor robot handling and wafer handling showcases its vital feature of beam wafer sensing with the wafer handling robots. The wafer handling robots are utilized in the semiconductor equipment spectrum for various processes such as thermal processing systems, deposition systems, metrology systems, and many more in any case.

The semiconductor robot handling emerges from the hindrance of scams in the daily fab operations. With the rise of the semiconductor operations and businesses, the manufacturing systems unfold to get dynamic technical and business needs. The semiconductor manufacturing experiences a torment from the automation.  The semiconductor front end wafer handling robots needs good veracity and robustness for the mechanical coercion.

Let us get into the topic and check out the strategies that can intensify the performance of the wafer handling robots.

The manipulating task performed by Robotic Handling Systems

So, the prevalent trait of the manipulating task carried out by the robotic handling systems is that they have to offer a straight-line motion of the center of the wafer. The straight-line motion is collateral with the central axis of the equipment, i.e., either an open cassette, FOUP, a process chamber. Although, that straight-line motion lies in the horizontal plane, but in a true sense, the linear motion may extend its hand for the synchronized vertical move to look out for equipment placement robotic arm slope. So, depicting the straight-line motion as uneasy won’t mean that the manipulated object gets continuously along with the equipment. It also points out that the way to the center of the wafer is stiffed to remain within proximity of the equipment’ center line. It is mainly considered to be less than 0.5 mm with the path and less than 0.05 mm at the extremity point. It is why the motion is known to be the fine motion. So, based on the straight line segment, it is located within the center of the robot. There are several other strategies for performing the manipulative task along with the mechanical structures of the robotic handling systems.

Talking in addition to the stiffed straight-line motion, there is another motion, which is called as gross motion. It is proposed to transfer the wafers between the various strategy positions, which are the equipment’s front stances. It is abandoned by the walls of the environment as it keeps the huge tolerance between the robotic system and the wall constraints. Therefore, this motion needs less accuracy. Therefore, to boost the performance of the robotics handling system, the gross motion must be really fast and has been set with the constraints by the need to hold wafer on the end-effector. So, mixing the uneasy straight-line motion and less inaccuracy, the gross motion is known to be one of the significant issues in the design and hold over the high performance of the robotic handling systems. In most of the cases, the effective combination of the fine and gross motions, grant more to the lessening of the wafer exchange time instead of the boost of the velocity and acceleration of the split motions.

Talking about the robotic handling systems:

The most used scenario of the robotic arm architecture in semiconductor automation is the branching scenario. The modules are disposed of so that their longitude goes through a single point that concurs with the center of rotation of wafer handling robots. So, the radial scenario was preferred to abide by having the constraints of the motion control technologies at the time instead of coming with the necessities for favorable and economical placement of the equipment set by the automation. With the conquer of the control of industrial manipulators, which created it to move the robotic arms in the endless paths, so the radial scenario started to hamper the FAB robotic automation and different “in-line” scenario for the equipment management was projected and provided the recognition as standard. For the same scenario, the equipment is put in an order in an orthogonal way that appoints major requirements to the motion abilities of the Robotic Handling System, like with having the capability to shift the straight lines forthwith. So, this needs to be combined with the gross motions that are specifically defined in the cylindrical space. The regular radial robots known as TRZ robots have turned out to be faulty in serving the “in-line” equipment with some exceptions in a skew manner. In the end, it needs the end-effector would try to enter the equipment at an angle, but the wafer held by the end effector shifts to a straight line coincident with the y-axis of the equipment. So, while experiencing the straight-line motion of the wafer, the assimilation of the end-effector alterations, makes the wafer rotation equivalent to the straight line segment length.  This strategy typically follows to the FOUPs as they set up little constraints over the rotation of the end-effector and for the few numbers of chamber process. It also permits the end effectors rotation in the straight-line motion. So, if the wafers are needed to be put up into different located off-radial chambers with the arbitrary assimilation of the notch, they must be seized with the dependent angular offsets of the notch from the wafer aligners. This is similarly put on to the specific applications that need assimilation of the wafers when they are implemented into the FOUPs. One more limitation of the skew handling is its lack of lodging the cases where the end-effector is needed to either move towards the cases to being addresses or in between located pins in the process chamber. The present FOUP designs won’t permit the edge gripping end-effectors to get an entry to the FOUP in a skewed manner due to the intervention of the front part of the edge gripper with the FOUP backside. This statement conclusively doesn’t apply to the designed edge grippers, but it holds onto entire edge-gripping devices.

Different companies provide a wide range of industries that leads the semiconductor wafer handling robots for the cleanroom applications. The robots get ideal for handling wafer sizes, either thin or bonded wafers with the best accuracy, throughput, flexible end-effectors, and other payload options.

What do we need to look for?

A trustworthy, robust and maintenance-free wafer handling system. The semiconductor equipment spectrum must include features are beam wafer sensing, 300 mm edge-grip end-effector, robot self-teach functionality, MULTILINK SCARA wafer robots. Rather than handling carriers and the production lots, they must also be able to handle wafers that are up to IAO-1 class environments. They must also be efficient in automating the complex processes that need a good degree of manual energy. It can include transferring between the several cassette types, water identification, slot map scanning, and wafers alignment.

Author Bio:

Kensington is an editor with Kensington Laboratories from the past 3 years.  Her passion for words and technology reflects in her contribution to numerous Robotics blogs and news features as a guest author. He likes to stay informed about technological innovations and their disruptions across all walks of life.

The post Automated Material Wafer Handling for Semiconductor Robot Handling Industry appeared first on Proche.

List of Semiconductor Companies in Bangalore

The post List of Semiconductor Companies in Bangalore appeared first on Proche.

What is a semiconductor?

The semiconductor is a substance, solid chemical element or compound that can conduct electricity under some conditions but not others. This property makes it a good medium for controlling electrical current. Its conductance varies depending on the current applied to the control electrode, or on the intensity of irradiation by infrared, visible light, ultraviolet or X rays.

Read more about semiconductor

Semiconductor Market in India 

According to a report published by IESA (Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association) in collaboration with Markets and Markets, a market research company, the Indian semiconductor component market is expected to be worth $32.35 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 10.1 percent between 2018 and 2025. The India electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) industry has a huge potential to become a leading industry as we can see a number of semiconductor manufacturing companies have started their production in India. We have a list of domestic and international semiconductor manufacturing companies in India.

Future in India

Seeing the concentrated efforts of the Indian government, we can clearly see India as a global market for the semiconductor.

List of Semiconductor Companies in India

The post List of Semiconductor Companies in India appeared first on Proche.

The Austin-based chipmaker on Wednesday reported record revenue of $205.38 million for its first quarter, which ended March 31. The upswing in revenue, up 15 percent, or about $26.3 million over the same quarter last year, was boosted by 17 percent year-over-year revenue growth in its Internet of Things division. Additionally, Silicon Labs reported that revenue from its infrastructure division rose by 37 percent for the quarter.

The Internet of Things is a tech industry term for non-computing devices — such as appliances or lamps — that are connected to the Internet.

Silicon Labs’ Internet of Things division generated 50 percent of the company’s first quarter revenue, CEO Tyson Tuttle said.

“Silicon Labs is well positioned to play a leading role in an $ 8 billion IoT market opportunity,” Tuttle said in a Wednesday call with investors and analysts. “We deliver easy to use products, platforms and tools to simplify development, and we have a well developed channel to get our solutions to market.”

Silicon Labs reported profit for the quarter of $26.4 million, or 60 cents per share, up $10.98 million year-over-year. Adjusted for one-time gains and costs, the company had earnings of 87 cents per share. Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research had predicted 76 cents per share.

Silicon Labs’ stock opened trading on Wednesday up roughly 2 percent to $90.40 per share. The company’s share price has risen by 20 percent over the past year.

Founded in 1996, Silicon Labs employs about 1,400 people in offices around the world, with about 650 of those employees in Austin. The company makes chips that are used in products such as televisions and data centers, and its clients including Cisco, LG Electronics and Samsung.

Silicon Labs has pulled back from its business in broadcast and internet access devices to invest in Internet of Things technology, as well as electric vehicles, renewable energy and other growing tech. Its broadcast revenue for the quarter declined 3 percent year-over-year.

Silicon Labs has purchased several IoT companies during the past years, including a $240 million acquisition it completed this month of Sigma Design’s Z-Wave wireless communications technology. Silicon Labs added about 100 employees through the purchase, Tuttle said, and he said SIlicon Labs expects Z-Wave to generate $40 million in revenue for the year.

“We have a very strong portfolio that is built on our platform, providing a wide range of connectivity operations for IoT customers,” Chief Financial Officer John Hollister told the American-Statesman Wednesday. “We see the addition of the Z-Wave product as being complimentary to that.”

Hollister said the company hired about 30 employees during its first quarter for departments such as sales and hardware design, with some of those positions being in Austin.

The company predicts its revenue in the second quarter to be between $211 million and $217 million and projects profit of 23 cents to 29 cents per share.

The post Austin’s Silicon Labs continues pivot to Internet of Things, posts record quarterly revenues appeared first on Proche.