8 DECEMBER 2024IN MYPINIONHARNESSING THE POWER OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TO ADVANCE SEMICONDUCTOR CAPITAL EQUIPMENT PERFORMANCE By Scott Green, Principal Solutions Leader, Industrial Solutions, 3D Systems CorporationAs the speed and complexity of the smart devices and computers we use have continued to grow exponentially, so has the complexity of the microchips that enable them. This has placed increased pressure on semiconductor OEMs to deliver higher performance and reliability in their equipment. Although rising demand for microchips has made it necessary for semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers to expand production, building, shipping, installing, and commissioning new manufacturing lines capable of meeting modern precision requirements is technically challenging, time-consuming, and expensive. These lines are also often dependent on slow and inefficient supply chains, making them vulnerable to unanticipated issues that can extend product development cycles and result in lead times as long as six to nine months for additional tooling. It's well known that the effectiveness of semiconductor manufacturing equipment can be impacted by disturbances at the nanometer scale and by temperature fluctuations in the millikelvin (mK) range. However, the constraints of traditional manufacturing techniques, such as casting or precision machining, make it difficult to design and produce functionally ideal parts with enough accuracy and durability to optimize performance. This can result in equipment with excess weight or volume that makes it prone to vibrations, leakage, pressure drops or other failures. Semiconductor capital equipment manufacturers incorporating metal additive manufacturing (AM) into their manufacturing processes can improve imaging performance, yield, quality, accuracy, productivity and reliability. While the potential for this technology is far-reaching, let's focus on the advantages of using metal AM in three categories of applications: fluid flow optimization, thermal management and structural components optimization. Optimizing Fluid FlowWhen building high-performing semiconductor manufacturing equipment, it's standard practice to try to create manifolds, mixers and feeders with channels designed for optimal fluid and gas flow. However, designing these components using traditional manufacturing techniques often results in large, heavy parts with sharp corners, discontinuity between assembled components, and Scott GreenFig 1: Optimized showerhead monolithic design for even material deposition and increased reliability.
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