Understanding and Improving Wafer Fab Cycle Times

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There are many good reasons to improve wafer fab cycle time. Lower cycle times allow for faster product development cycles, and speedier time to market for new products. Lower cycle times also allow companies to maintain lower inventory levels, and to better satisfy customers. Some studies have shown a correlation between reduced cycle times and improved line yield (a clear dollar benefit). All in all, improving cycle times can improve both customer satisfaction and the semiconductor manufacturer’s bottom line. The first step to improving cycle times is to understand the factors that make wafer fab cycle times high in the first place. In this article, we will first discuss contributors to wafer fab cycle times, and then propose some suggestions for making low-cost improvements.

This paper is available from FabTime in Adobe PDF format. You can download it (106 KB) here by right-clicking on the previous link. The paper was originally published in Semiconductor FabTech Magazine, and is reprinted here with permission. If you like this paper, you might want to subscribe to FabTime’s Cycle Time Management newsletter, a free monthly email publication.