Design for facilities - Thoughts on interfacing process equipment and facility systems

When designing semiconductor manufacturing equipment to meet the highly complex challenges of today's semiconductor market, the focus historically has been on the process capability of the tool. The capital cost of the equipment, as well as the cost for operation and maintenance, is generally factored into the initial process equipment design scope; however, the impact of the equipment on facility costs are usually not included. The requirements of the production equipment drive facility design and facility costs represent a significant portion of the wafer cost. This paper explores how semiconductor manufacturing equipment can be designed to be more compatible with the facility and the infrastructure support systems. This paper will also look at some previously ignored semiconductor manufacturing equipment requirements which ultimately impacted a facility and drove additional facility costs.