Asyst unveils semiconductor industry's first 300mm wafer handling solution and its plan to openly license the revolutionary technology.MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 1995--Asyst Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :ASYT), a leading supplier of automated material management systems for the global semiconductor industry, today unveiled the industry's first 300mm wafer handling solution -- the Asyst Auto-Kinematic(TM) Cassette. Simultaneously, the company announced plans to openly license this core technology to ensure its ready availability to chipmakers and OEMs worldwide. Although the semiconductor industry acknowledges the need to move to 300mm, the inherent challenges associated with this move are considerable. Wafer size and weight pose structural problems. Contamination is another critical issue affecting material selection. Processing flexibility is also paramount. While the larger wafers help reduce chip cost by producing more devices per wafer, manufacturers must also address the trend toward smaller wafer lots driven by the need to reduce cycle times while increasing customization of chips for specific applications. Building on traditional cassette designs, Asyst's new 300mm cassette addresses all of these challenges through three important characteristics: a new shape, a modular configuration, and a universal mounting system for placement accuracy. Unlike the slotted, plastic cube in use today, Asyst's 300mm cassette has a cylindrical form factor with a three-pin "tripod" kinematic coupling  This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.Please help recruit one or [ improve this article] yourself. See the talk page for details. that ensures fault-free positioning of the cassette -- a critical factor for today's increasingly automated semiconductor fabs. Moreover, the cassette can be stacked using the kinematic coupling device, allowing chipmakers to flexibly configure wafer lots and batch sizes to ensure maximum processing efficiency. Open Licensing Agreement Creates Simultaneous Access Worldwide Due to its potential to serve as a standard for 300mm processing, Asyst made the decision to openly license its new wafer handling technology. The licensing agreement covers the engineering specifications (the technology "blueprints" and how to use them) plus the rights to manufacture the uniquely designed 300mm wafer cassette and its kinematic kin·e·mat·ics n. (used with a sing. verb) The branch of mechanics that studies the motion of a body or a system of bodies without consideration given to its mass or the forces acting on it. mounting. Commenting on the decision to license the technology, Asyst's President and Chief Operating Officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. Bruce Rhine said, "Given the tremendous challenges associated with the transition from 200mm to 300mm processing, industry must define 300mm building blocks that will enable equipment and chip manufacturers alike to confidently initiate the development cycle. Our new cassette design and licensing strategy are the first pivotal steps in this endeavor. They are also consistent with our corporate charter to devise materials management Materials management is the branch of logistics that deals with the tangible components of a supply chain. Specifically, this covers the acquisition of spare parts and replacements, quality control of purchasing and ordering such parts, and the standards involved in ordering, solutions that boost productivity and yield for global semiconductor manufacturers." San Jose San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif.-based market research firm VLSI VLSI: see integrated circuit. (1) (Very Large Scale Integration) Between 100,000 and one million transistors on a chip. See SSI, MSI, LSI and ULSI. (2) (VLSI Technology, Inc., Tempe, AZ, www.semiconductors. Research Inc. praised Asyst's 300mm technology and open licensing strategy, citing it as a development that could change the way chipmakers manufacture products. VLSI President G. Dan Hutcheson explained that beyond offering early definition of a 300mm open standard, the modular architecture meets the industry's pressing need to customize process lot sizes. "Chipmakers will be able to carefully manage work in progress in accordance with market demand, significantly improving the bottom line." Hutcheson concluded that the open licensing strategy is a real "gift" to the industry. "If universally accepted by OEMs and end-users, this new design will enhance manufacturing protocols, speed the transition to 300mm processing and help to lower the enormous retooling costs associated with major manufacturing shifts," he added. The industry's leading cassette manufacturer, Fluoroware, also applauded the efforts of Asyst Technologies. Jim Liddell, sales and marketing manager of the Chaska, Minnesota-based company, said that Asyst's design concept closely follows the SEMI 300mm wafer carrier task force group's parameters for a 300mm cassette. "With an actual design model now available for early adopters and OEMs to design equipment load ports around, we can all keep on schedule for the 300mm conversion implementation," Liddell said. "The overall design concept of the Auto-Kinematic cassette, while similar to Fluoroware's, provides the whole industry with a tremendous springboard for transition to 300mm. We will all win from this concept as a global standard provides a path for easy implementations." Cassette Addresses Key Issues Identified as Concerns for 300mm Processing Asyst's Senior Vice President of Research and Development Anthony C. Bonora said his team of engineers designed and built the new cassette to address key 300mm wafer handling issues, namely positional stability and precision, lot size configurability, process tool efficiency and intrinsic automation compatibility. The kinematic mounting is an essential design component in addressing these needs. Based on the work of MIT MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Alexander H. Slocum, Asyst's three-point kinematic mount provides a standard position for interlocking interlocking /in·ter·lock·ing/ (-lok´ing) closely joined, as by hooks or dovetails; locking into one another. interlocking Obstetrics A rare complication of vaginal delivery of twins; the 1st between wafer cassettes, wafer carriers and the process tools. Hence, it reduces the potential for wafer damage caused by faulty alignment during wafer handling operations. "The primary objective in developing kinematic mounting was to achieve the increased precision vital to automation in sophisticated process industries," Slocum noted. "Asyst's rendition of this approach provides excellent flexibility. At the same time, it greatly contributes to a standard for fabwide automation schemes." The cassette's cylindrical form factor is another important design feature. It accommodates the larger 300mm wafers in the smallest possible footprint. For vacuum chamber process tools, this minimizes ambient volume, resulting in shorter pump down cycle times, which in turn boosts wafer throughput. For pick and place applications, the cylindrical form factor enables cassette theta Theta A measure of the rate of decline in the value of an option due to the passage of time. Theta can also be referred to as the time decay on the value of an option. If everything is held constant, then the option will lose value as time moves closer to the maturity of the option. rotation, thus facilitating automation approaches while minimizing tool footprint. Another throughput benefit is the cassette's ability to withstand elevated temperatures, which obviates the need for internal cool down cycles in cluster-tool applications. Cassettes will be available to accommodate a variety of wafer lot sizes. Chipmakers can select the number of wafer slots per cassette and then stack varying sizes to achieve optimum process flexibility in the fab. The cassette, along with a complete 300mm wafer handling system based upon the Asyst-SMIF(TM) System, will be unveiled at SEMICON/West, July 11-14, at the San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden Moscone Center The Moscone Center is San Francisco, California's largest convention and exhibition complex. The complex consists of two main underground halls underneath Yerba Buena Gardens, Moscone North and Moscone South, as well the three-level Moscone West exhibition hall across 4th Street. . The new cassette can be ordered immediately with delivery three months after receipt of order. About Asyst Asyst Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of process control and automation systems that help semiconductor manufacturers reduce their integrated circuit integrated circuit (IC), electronic circuit built on a semiconductor substrate, usually one of single-crystal silicon. The circuit, often called a chip, is packaged in a hermetically sealed case or a nonhermetic plastic capsule, with leads extending from it for production costs. The company's Asyst-SMIF System combines state-of-the-art mini environments with advanced robotics to create ultraclean processing environments that are both comprehensive and flexible. The SMART-traveler System (STS (Synchronous Transport Signal) The electrical equivalent of the SONET optical signal. In SDH, the European counterpart of SONET, STS is known as STM (Synchronous Transport Module). ) works in tandem Adv. 1. in tandem - one behind the other; "ride tandem on a bicycle built for two"; "riding horses down the path in tandem" tandem with SMIF SMIF Standard Mechanical Interface SMIF Stream-based Model Interchange Format SMIF Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility (Duke University) SMIF Stanford Management Internship Fund SMIF SMAD4-Interacting Transcription Factor to eliminate misprocessing. Both Asyst-SMIF and its companion STS products are integral to seamless factory automation of the future. Asyst has recently created a new subsidiary, Asyst Automation, Inc. that focuses on material handling control software and inter-bay/intra-bay automation. Founded in 1984, Asyst Technologies, Inc. is headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., with facilities in Europe and the Far East. The company's common stock trades on the NASDAQ stock Market Nasdaq stock market The first electronic stock market listing over 5000 companies. The Nasdaq stock market comprises two separate markets, namely the Nasdaq National Market, which trades large, active securities and the Nasdaq Smallcap Market that trades emerging growth companies. under the symbol ASYT. About SMIF SMIF stands for Standard Mechanical InterFace, the material handling approach that enables wafer transfer to and from the sealed SMIF environments without exposure to ambient conditions. SEMI standards exist for 150mm and 200mm wafer sizes and are now being defined for 300mm. CONTACT: Asyst Technologies, Inc. Denver Lough Lough (lŏkh, lŏk). For names of Irish lakes and inlets beginning with "Lough," see second part of element; e.g., for Lough Corrib, see Corrib, Lough. See lake. , 408/263-5111 (general/business) Anthony Bonora, 408/263-5111 (technical) or MCA MCA in full Music Corporation of America Entertainment conglomerate. It was founded in Chicago in 1924 by Jules Stein as a talent agency. In the 1960s it bought Decca Records and Universal Pictures, and today it produces films, music, and television shows. , Inc. Jean LeMoin or Margaret Pereira, 415/968-8900 |
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