Lam Research’s Dextro cobot boosts semiconductor production efficiency

Lam Research Corp. this week introduced Dextro, its first collaborative robot arm designed to optimize critical maintenance tasks on semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment. The Fremont, Calif.-based company announced that multiple advanced wafer fabs around the world have deployed Dextro.

As fabs continue to grow in size, geographic diversity, and equipment complexity, chipmakers need to optimize the effectiveness of their human engineers by increasing automation, noted Lam Research. This is becoming even more important as the number of semiconductor positions worldwide continues to outpace the availability of skilled engineers.

Precision is crucial in tool maintenance, where the accurate reassembly of subsystems translates to the bottom line, the company said. Achieving first-time right (FTR) saves time and cost, it asserted. Repeatable maintenance can also reduce waste associated with consumable parts, labor and production downtime, leading to less variability and higher yield in production.

“When manufacturing equipment requires maintenance, the work must be done quickly and efficiently to avoid extended tool downtime and wasted cost,” said Young Ju Kim, vice president and head of the Memory Etch Technology Team at Samsung Electronics. “Error-free maintenance by Dextro helps drive improvements in production variability and yield. This is an exciting milestone in Samsung’s journey to the autonomous fab.”

Lam Research supports semiconductor accuracy

Nearly every advanced chip today is built with Lam technology, claimed the company. It said it designed Dextro to minimize tool downtime and production variability.

Within a fab, accuracy matters. Semiconductor manufacturing operates with nanoscale accuracy, and while Dextro does not have that level of accuracy, Lam Research said its task is to maintain the tools to consistently produce at nanoscale. The result is significant FTR results that can enhance yield.

Lam said it designed Dextro to manage hundreds of process tools, each requiring regular, complex maintenance. These critical tasks require repeatability with sub-micron precision. There is no economic use case for a dedicated cobot at each process tool. Instead, the new system can be repositioned around the fab as the process tools are taken offline for maintenance.

“Dextro is a mobile cart that is guided and docked to a piece of equipment, then operated remotely by a fab engineer or technician,” explained Russel Dover, general manager of the Customer Support Business Group at Lam Research. “The cart contains the cobot’s control systems and contains much of the core technology.”

When asked about the typical maintenance cycle, Dover replied, “The length of time varies depending on the application. A single application could take up to 30 minutes including docking and undocking time. Done manually, it can typically take two to four times longer. A single Dextro unit can service up to 100 Lam Flex chambers at a maintenance frequency of one time per month.”

UR5e cobot at the center of Dextro

At the heart of Dextro is aUR5e cobot arm from Universal Robots. The UR5e has a reach of 850 mm (33.5 in.) and a payload of 5 kg (11 lb.). Equipped with a quick change end-of-arm wrist, Dextro can quickly select the appropriate end effector for the specific maintenance ask, such as:

• It precisely installs and compresses consumable components with more than two times the accuracy of manual application. Precise assembly helps control etch performance at the wafer edge, improving yield.
• Dextro tightens vacuum-sealing, high-precision bolts to exact specifications, relieving fab engineers of a repetitive task with up to a 5% error rate when done manually. Accurately meeting specifications eliminate chamber temperature deviations that may take a tool out of production and impact die yield, said Lam Research.
• Using automation and cleaning technology, Dextro removes side-wall polymer build-up within the chamber, without the burden of disassembly of the lower chamber. Importantly, it does this at lower risk to humans who require heavy protective breathing equipment to perform the task manually.

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Automation promises to reduce downtime

“With the enormous increase in demand that AI is bringing to the semiconductor market, it’s critical for chipmakers to keep all their manufacturing equipment working as efficiently as possible to minimize downtime,” noted Bob O’Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Research. “Dextro can automate tedious, time-consuming, and often intricate cleaning and maintenance tasks on chip fabrication equipment so that manufacturing output can be maximized. It offers a huge benefit for companies that choose to deploy it.”

“Dextro is an exciting leap forward in semiconductor manufacturing equipment maintenance” said Chris Carter, group vice president of the Customer Support Business Group at Lam Research.

“Built to work side by side with fab engineers, it executes complex maintenance tasks with precision and repeatability that are beyond human capability alone, enabling higher tool uptime and manufacturing yield,” he explained. “It is a powerful addition to Lam’s extensive portfolio of tools and services designed to help chipmakers optimize their fabs for cost and productivity.”

Lam’s Flex G and H series dielectric etch tools are supported by Dextro, which will expand to additional tools in 2025 and beyond.

Dextro joins a portfolio of Lam systems intended to enhance efficiency and reduce the cost of operations for semiconductor fabs. It includes the Lam Equipment Intelligence process tools with autonomous calibration and self-adapting maintenance capabilities.

The portfolio also includes Lam’s Equipment Intelligence Services, which use data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Lam domain knowledge to achieve better productivity outcomes.