How do material and information flows impact fab performance?

Historically, a lot of attention has been given to improving the physics, the chemistry and the process technologies used in semiconductor manufacturing. This focus has produced dramatic results. Since its inception, the semiconductor industry has achieved productivity improvements unmatched by any other industry. Shrinking feature sizes, larger wafers, yield improvements and other productivity gains have contributed to this success. However, most of the known technological capabilities will be approaching or have reached their limits within 10-15 years. Already, larger wafers and improved yields are making a smaller contribution to productivity improvements than they have in the past, creating a widening gap in the productivity curve. This paper discusses how automated material and information flow can help close this gap in the productivity curve, and results that have been achieved.