Wafer handling robots under the chip recovery: Accelerating iteration and leading a new era of intelligent manufacturing

At this key juncture of digital transformation, the chip industry is waking up from challenges and showing unprecedented vitality. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) data, in May 2024, the global semiconductor industry sales reached 49.1 billion US dollars, compared to 41.2 billion US dollars in May 2023, an increase of 19.3%, performance, inventory, prices, capacity utilization and other indicators are reflecting the industry continued to improve signs, domestic substitution is in full swing. Semiconductor equipment ushered in a good phenomenon.

As the global demand for semiconductors continues to grow, fabs' production efficiency and quality control have become decisive competitiveness. Wafer handling robot as an important part of the semiconductor manufacturing process, in this context, taking the semiconductor factory logistics automation system as an example, the wafer handling vehicle has evolved from the first generation of guideway AGV to the third generation of cluster AMR matrix, and the product yield and capacity utilization rate of some domestic 8-inch and 12-inch factories have also steadily improved with the automation transformation. Promote the entire industrial chain to a new height of intelligent manufacturing. The third-generation AMR in the semiconductor field has achieved a breakthrough from single-machine operation to cluster coordination, and large-scale cooperation is implemented in the factory to perform automatic material handling tasks, ensuring that the overall logistics handling efficiency is improved. With the clustering, scale and generalization of AMR applications in the semiconductor industry, the research direction of the core technology of logistics automation has changed from the function and applicability of the robot itself to the comprehensive logistics efficiency optimization starting from the full Auto of the whole plant. At present, Youai Zhihe, the representative manufacturer of the third generation of mobile robots in China, is actively exploring the evolution direction of the next generation of technology. In March this year, Youai Zhihe released the omnidirectional mobile chassis of SLAM laser navigation, followed by the launch of the omnidirectional mobile ability of the mobile operation robot, which aims to complete the automatic material handling task in a more flexible and efficient form in semiconductor factories.

The third-generation AMR in the semiconductor field has achieved a breakthrough from single-machine operation to cluster coordination, and large-scale cooperation is implemented in the factory to perform automatic material handling tasks, ensuring that the overall logistics handling efficiency is improved.

With the clustering, scale and generalization of AMR applications in the semiconductor industry, the research direction of the core technology of logistics automation has changed from the function and applicability of the robot itself to the comprehensive logistics efficiency optimization starting from the full Auto of the whole plant.

At present, Youai Zhihe, the representative manufacturer of the third generation of mobile robots in China, is actively exploring the evolution direction of the next generation of technology. In March this year, Youai Zhihe released the omnidirectional mobile chassis of SLAM laser navigation, followed by the launch of the omnidirectional mobile ability of the mobile operation robot, which aims to complete the automatic material handling task in a more flexible and efficient form in semiconductor factories.

"In-depth analysis of 'integrated logistics efficiency', its influencing factors are distributed in the full stack range from hardware to the intelligent system of the whole plant, including the robot hardware and software itself, and pay more attention to the integration and evolution of robot hardware and software and other related hardware and software in the whole plant." Youai Zhihe semiconductor business director Jiang Xubin said.

At the hardware level, Youai Intelligent mobile robots have passed the first evolution cycle: from customization to platform. For the whole process of semiconductor production, UAI has created six robot standard forms with excellent performance, which can meet the safety and stability performance of the operating vibration value of 0.5G, CLASS100, and sub-millimeter accuracy. On this basis, the platform AMR chassis and the integrated operating system MOS are used as the platform to support the agile integration of different forms of composite mobile robots.

In the next step, Youai Zhihe will focus on the revolutionary improvement of monomer efficiency in the subdivision scenario, and has made a number of forward-looking technological breakthroughs.

Under the traditional SLAM laser navigation algorithm, the wafer handling robot needs multiple steps to position and compensate the accuracy of loading and unloading, so the operation delay greatly affects the execution efficiency of the single unit. The Fusion SLAM(Fusion laser navigation) algorithm developed by Youai Zhihe uses multi-dimensional precision to control fusion, which no longer improves the final accuracy step by step in a specific order, but achieves "a hundred steps" in a large range of mobile processes in a highly fusion and real-time compensation way. The operation performance of the robot will completely abandon the "positioning" link, with sub-millimeter operating accuracy under the condition of 0 delay.

At the system level, Youai Zhihe focuses on the strong coupling of full-stack systems. "Smart factory - smart manufacturing - smart logistics - smart robot" is a highly connected system. The fourth-generation semiconductor AMR will make real-time dynamic decisions, while in the highly coupled state of the system, the robot operation rate will tend to 100%, the on-site logistics system greatly reduces the demand for cache materials, and the in-process inventory efficiency will be greatly improved.

At present, Youai Zhihe's mobile robots are being used in domestic semiconductor factories on a large scale. Jiang Xubin said: "On the hardware level, you ai Zhihe mobile robot will gradually evolve to the 'limit single product', the system level will be committed to the strong coupling of the full stack system, at the same time, we will also cooperate with the industry's leading manufacturers to explore, aiming at the whole plant capacity, yield, inventory efficiency indicators to define logistics solutions."

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