Single Wafer Management: A solution for 300mm Prime & improved wafer storage quality

The "300 mm prime initiative" stands for the search of the semiconductor industry for concepts which offer improved productivity. Analysis of state-of-the-art fabs has shown that the true process time of a wafer is much less than 10% of the overall time the wafer spends in the fab. This results in extremely long cycle times (typically 3-4 months), huge wafer traffic and unmoved WIP. The main topics of the 300 mm prime discussion are therefore: (1) Reduced overall cycle time (2) Efficiently handle small and large lots. As discussed at the ISMI/Sematech meeting in Austin in 2006, the concepts applied for 300 mm prime should also serve as a role model for 450 mm.