The experience of lead users in the adoption of minienvironment technology

During the past few years, the use of minienvironment technology has rapidly emerged as an important strategy for containing cost and reducing particle contamination in semiconductor integrated circuit fabrication. However, implementation of minienvironment technology is not uniform throughout the semiconductor industry and, in particular, several well-recognized leading firms have been slow to adopt the technology. This paper discusses the experiences of several lead users of minienvironment technology based on data collected from interviews and an industry-wide survey. Generally speaking, lead users have found the technology to be quite beneficial on a number of important dimensions, including cost and contamination control. The experiences and perceptions of lead users provide a contrast to firms that have studied the technology closely, but do not have much actual experience using minienvironments. Lead users report significant cost savings and sub-Class 1 at the wafer surface, while non-users usually perceive far less benefit, particularly in terms of cost. One indication of the effectiveness of the technology is that many lead users continue to expand their investments in minienvironments. The author argues that, compared to industry leaders, lead users of minienvironments may provide greater insight into the usefulness of the technology because these firms are further along the learning curve.