Crossing Automation Sees 450mm Buying Activity
By David Lammers
Within the last two months, modular automation vendor Crossing Automation Inc. (Fremont, Calif.) has begun to see “real money being spent” on 450mm automation equipment, which marketing vice president May Su said signals “very much the first phase” of spending by equipment vendors on 450mm sorters, Equipment Front End Modules (EFEMs), and load ports.
Crossing Automation, which bought the atmospheric (non-vacuum) automation portion of Asyst Technologies two years ago, today introduced its 450mm development platform and the Crossing Certon 450 Loadport. The loadports are expected to ship in December, with the development platform shipping in Q1 2012.
May Su
Crossing has “multiple units” of its loadport installed. Su said the equipment is relatively lightweight, at 80 kg., which allows a single installer to tilt it into place and install it at four fastening locations. “A single person can tilt it without falling over,” said Su. The end effector design is another unique feature. And it includes a horizontal door closing mechanism that the company said “ensures proper closing to prevent wafer damage and particle generation.”
After proving out the loadport design at the ISMI 450 program, Crossing has sold it to several equipment suppliers, which Su said are “paying customers.”
The first phase of 450mm equipment development is underway at the major equipment vendors, who have stepped up their development efforts recently. While significant revenues will come in the first phase, the majority of the automation revenues will come when volume chip manufacturing gets underway.
“We have been very busy lately, hosting lots of visitors. We have real POs, with real dollars changing hands. But there won’t be major revenues until Samsung, TSMC, Intel and the others begin to build fabs, and that may not happen for a few more years,” she said.
Crossing Automation's 450mm Development Platform
Crossing’s development platform is aimed at the equipment vendors which concentrate on their process chamber development, offloading the gas and automation interfaces to Crossing. Large equipment companies develop their own EFEMs and equipment platforms, but Su said Crossing has “unique technology which will allow the smaller suppliers to work with Crossing Automation.”
The company said its Crossing 450mm Development Platform is a “low-cost, small footprint system that allows OEMs to reliably move wafers in and out of process chambers.”
This single FOUP EFEM “accelerates OEMs’ 450mm development efforts by eliminating the need to spend engineering time on platform development” and “allows OEMs to easily migrate to high-volume production without software and hardware interface changes.”
In late September of this year, Crossing Automation introduced its 450mm wafer sorter, the Spartan 450, and said it has an order for the new sorter from a semiconductor manufacturer. The platform is scheduled to ship in Q1 2012.
Spartan 450 Sorter
The Spartan 450 sorter incorporates features required to interface with a fab’s manufacturing execution system (MES). Initially targeting the 22nm technology node, it is extendible to 7nm technology, the company said. The 450mm sorter is designed as a single, integrated unit to enable faster installation and tool hookup, easier tool moves for increased flexibility, and a faster ramp to production, Su said.
Tags: 450mm, Crossing Automation, EFEMs, sorters, wafers
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