Fab Time
Fab Time
January 2009
Information
Mission: To discuss issues relating to
proactive wafer fab cycle time management
Publisher: FabTime Inc. FabTime sells
cycle time management software for wafer
fab managers. New features in this month
include speed improvements for initial
entry to tool-state charts and the ability for
end-users to create and share custom
charts.
Editor: Jennifer Robinson
Table of Contents
Welcome
Community News/Announcements
FabTime User Tip of the Month
Analyze MTBF Data in FabTime
Subscriber Discussion Forum
Main Topic Setting WIP Goals
in Wafer Fabs
Current Subscribers
Welcome
Welcome to Volume 10, Number 1 of the FabTime Cycle Time Management Newsletter!
This is the start of our 10th year of publication, and our 90th issue. We are grateful to our
loyal subscribers, and we wish you all the best in these difficult economic times. In this
issue, we have two community announcements, one about a special issue of Future Fab
magazine, and the other a call for papers for the next MASM conference. Our software
user tip of the month is about analyzing MTBF and MTTR data in FabTime. We have no
subscriber discussion this month, but we have listed some recent topics, and welcome
your feedback for future issues.
FabTime
Tel: (408) 549-9932
Fax: (408) 549-9941
www.FabTime.com
[email protected]
In our main article this month, we return to a topic addressed in Volume 9, Number 9,
controlling WIP in the fab. In that previous article, we discussed the management of WIP
bubbles. In this article, we discuss setting goals for WIP in the fab as a whole, and by
area, and the tracking of the absolute delta from WIP goals as a measure of variability.
We also discuss the importance of ensuring that WIP goals are consistent with other fab
goals, and illustrate this with a detailed example. While WIP levels are probably declining
right now in many fabs, we reiterate the point from last month that a downturn is a good
time to focus on fundamentals. Understanding and tracking your WIP levels in more
detail is a good place to start.
Thanks for reading!Jennifer
Community News/Announcements
Special ITRS Issue of Future Fab
Magazine Available
We received this announcement about a
new issue of Future Fab Magazine, and the
ITRS connection made us decide to share
the announcement with you all:
Presenting a new annual ITRS edition of
Future Fab our first issue of this year!
Let us take this opportunity to thank issue
sponsors. Without their continued support
in these difficult times, we would not be
able to bring you this Special Focus
Edition: International Technology
Roadmap for Semiconductors.
This issue brings you articles written for
Future Fab by all of the ITRS Technology
Working Groups (TWGs). These executive
summaries provide an overview of the
work that each TWG is tackling. At the
end of each synopsis youll find a link that
takes you back to the ITRS site for
complete details.
The Future Fab ITRS Annual Issue begins
with an introduction from ITRS Chairman
and Future Fab Panel Member, Dr. Paolo
Gargini, Intel Fellow and Director of
Technology Strategy for Intel Corp., and
follows up with articles which present
cutting-edge opinion and research on
ITRS-sponsored initiatives ranging from
ESH issues to wireless and mobile, and
from metrology to front end processes.
The issue is available for download from
http://www.future-fab.com/. Download is
free, but requires a brief registration
process.
Call for Papers: 2009 Modeling and
Analysis of Semiconductor
Manufacturing Conference (MASM
2009)
We received a call for papers from Scott
Mason, one of the three conference
organizers (with Ricki Ingalls from
Oklahoma State University and Shekar
Krishnaswamy from AMD), for MASM
Subscriber List
Total number of subscribers: 2840, from
476 companies and universities. 21
consultants.
Top 20 subscribing companies:
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (226)
Intel Corporation (149)
Micron Technology, Inc. (83)
Chartered Semiconductor Mfg. (80)
X-FAB Inc. (71)
Western Digital Corporation (68)
Texas Instruments (64)
Analog Devices (61)
Infineon Technologies (61)
ON Semiconductor (58)
Freescale Semiconductor (57)
International Rectifier (55)
TECH Semiconductor Singapore (55)
NEC Electronics (53)
STMicroelectronics (49)
IBM (45)
NXP Semiconductors (45)
Cypress Semiconductor (43)
Seagate Technology (36)
ATMEL (34)
Top 3 subscribing universities:
Virginia Tech (11)
Arizona State University (8)
Ben Gurion Univ. of the Negev (8)
10
Mike Hillis
Cycle Time and Line Yield
Improvement Manager
AMD Fab 25
Jim Wright
Production Manager
Headway Technologies
FabTime Subscription
One low monthly price includes
Software installation and realtime connect to your MES
End user and system
administrator training
Unlimited users via your
Intranet.
Software maintenance and
regular upgrades (approx. 6 per
year, via our no-downtime patch
system)
Add-on dispatching and
planning module for a slightly
higher monthly fee
Interested?
Contact FabTime for technical
details or a pilot project quote.
FabTime Inc.
Phone: +1 (408) 549-9932
Fax:
+1 (408) 549-9941
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.FabTime.com
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