Company Profile
Analog Devices, Micro machined Products Division, Belfast (formerly known as BCO Technologies plc) has been a
leading supplier of fully customised, bonded SOI (Silicon-On-Insulator) wafers since 1992. Thick film SOI
produced by wafer bonding is becoming widely accepted as the material and solution of choice in areas such
as MEMS/MOEMS (micromachining), high voltage analog integrated circuits, opto-electronics and smart power.
Situation
Analog Devices required a system to monitor a Strasbaugh 6DS-SP Planarizer polishing machine to provide
critical process parameter information in real-time. Process engineers wanted to acquire and record data
in order to perform trend analysis and determine the reasons for any process defects. Analog sought a system
that would be easy to use and configure.
Solution
Measuresoft proposed and installed the machine monitoring solution based on its ScadaPro
product running on the Microsoft Windows platform. The ScadaPro system was configured to acquire data from a Datascan data
acquisition module. The Datascan 7320 unit can acquire Voltage, Thermocouple and 4-20 mA transducer measurements
from the machine. For each wafer processed, ScadaPro monitors critical process parameters, including:
- Spindle motor current
- Table motor current
- Spindle downforce
- Polish pad temperature
A ScadaPro client located in the office allows for remote monitoring
and analysis outside of the clean room environment. The system was
commissioned in only half a day. Analog now have a machine monitoring
system that:
- Provides real-time information for operators to monitor during a
batch or shift.
- Records machinery performance data for preventative maintenance
purposes.
- Provides comprehensive data logging features to capture all
information for future analysis.
- Provides real-time and historical trending which allows an
operator zoom into an area of interest and export that data to a
standard Microsoft Excel report format.
Benefits
- Comprehensive measurement collection significantly increases the
accuracy of readings: rather than estimating, ScadaPro allows users to
pinpoint precise changes in layer densities.
- ScadaPro’s real-time measurement capability provides higher
accuracy and reliability, ensuring better process results and reduces
process uniformity defects.
- Problems with machinery can be easily spotted and recorded. Within
the first 2 weeks of running, Analog were able to identify and correct
performance problems on the machine.
- The ScadaPro system can aid predictive maintenance – the system
can be configured to capture minute changes in current to indicate the
need for recalibration of system components.
- The system can easily be expanded to monitor more machines.
- Leveraging the Microsoft platform provides a solution that is
accessible throughout the corporate network.
- Operator familiarity with the Windows user interface reduces
training costs.
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Real-time machine
measurements such as pressure, temp, force, and current, are
displayed. |
Real-time and historical trends allow for detailed analysis and
reporting. |
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