How to Qualify Which Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers Meet Your Requirements

There are lots of things to consider when you review potential suppliers to use from a list of semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Below are some of the things to consider.

Can the semiconductor equipment manufacturer supply the equipment you need when customized solutions are needed to meet your specific requirements? Whether a customer needs to upgrade equipment, replace old equipment with newer ones or have new components integrated with existing systems, manufacturers need to provide extensive experience and expertise with such customizations. In that way, they will be able to supply the exact equipment that will suit a customer's specifications and requirements.

After Equipment is purchased and set up at a facility it needs to be reliable and stay online for long periods of time and with minimal downtime. The best way to find out if a supplier can provide equipment of such description is to contact references and review their reliability statistics.

Once a customer has chosen a specific supplier, they should review the warranty and support capability first before signing a contract. New equipment warranties usually come with at least one year. As for after-sales support, the customer should also check on the strength of the supplier's service department. The most generous warranties will not be of much use if the supplier has few personnel that are able to deliver on it.

Customers should also avoid suppliers that use third-party service support because it is a strong indication that these suppliers are not well equipped to provide quality after-sales support. The best way to check on a company's service ability is to simply call with a question prior to purchase. In most cases, it’s also best to use a supplier that has a proven track record in providing equipment and service to industry manufacturers. Modutek is a leading semiconductor equipment manufacturer with over 35 years of experience that you can trust to meet your specific needs.

For more details read the complete article titled, “How to Qualify Which Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers Meet Your Requirements”. For a free quote or consultation contact Modutek at Modutek@modutek.com or call 866-803-1533.

Upgrading Used Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment and Wet Benches

As long as existing semiconductor manufacturing equipment or wet benches are not near the end of their useful life, it is often more practical to upgrade them than to buy new equipment.

When the equipment experiences a downtime, it may be a good time to replace key components while the entire subsystems can be upgraded during scheduled maintenance to prevent further downtime. Upgrading and retrofitting the used equipment with new components as well as repairing their defective parts can result in extended useful life for wet benches and related equipment. Upgrades can also help further increase throughput, improve safety, ergonomics, ease of operations, and chemical delivery system performance. If you want your equipment to be able to handle larger wafer sizes, upgrades are also the way to go.

Modutek has many years of experience and expertise in upgrading existing wet benches and other related equipment -- whether it's their own or from another manufacturer. Among the equipment upgrades Modutek can provide:

·         Identifying and replacing defective or obsolete parts with new or retrofitted components

·         Updating robotics, baths, and wet etching components

·         Upgrading motion controls and software

·         Redesigning and improving systems within an existing footprint

·         Re-conditioning existing systems to improve performance

Upgrading brings a lot of benefits, including the opportunity to upgrade semiconductor fabrication equipment from manual to semi-automatic or a fully automatic configuration to improve consistency and reduce operational errors. Modutek can determine whether such upgrades or retrofits are feasible by evaluating the performance of their older models (or units from some other manufacturers) and then performing the appropriate work.

For more information, please read the complete article titled “Upgrading Used Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment and Wet Benches”. If you have additional questions or would like to discuss your specific needs, call 408-362-2000.