Applied Materials, Inc. (AM) has announced its Applied E3 advanced equipment and process control solution, a factory automation (FA) software package for improving the productivity and reducing the costs of semiconductor, flat panel display and photovoltaic solar cell manufacturing. Utilizing proprietary algorithms, AM claims the Applied E3 system can boost process capability by >30%, reduce unscheduled down time, and shorten cycle time to achieve up to a 20% increase in overall equipment effectiveness. "Customers understand that equipment automation is a huge opportunity to exploit the unused potential of their existing assets and to reduce costs,' said Manfred Kerschbaum, senior vice president and general manager of Applied Global Services. 'The E3 system revolutionizes equipment automation and control technology, which has historically been complex and expensive to implement and maintain. With its graphical development environment and pre-configured modules, the Applied E3 system is quick to deploy and easy to update and extend, offering a fast and cost-effective route to raise factory output."Features of the Applied E3 solution include equipment automation, data collection and logic handling, fault detection and classification (FDC). Run-to-run control (R2R) uses patented feedback algorithms to reduce process variability by adjusting processing parameters in real time. Equipment performance tracking (EPT) monitors every processing tool in the factory and provides visual and statistical reporting tools to identify bottlenecks.
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