AMD, Honeywell Consortium Wins DOC Grant

Business Wire, Feb 13, 1996

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 1996--The United States Department of Commerce has announced a $4.9-million grant to partially fund a new semiconductor manufacturing initiative proposed by Advanced Micro Devices and Honeywell. The Advanced Process Control (APC) initiative will promote semiconductor manufacturing efficiency, increasing silicon wafer throughput and yield.

The grant will help fund development and testing of an APC feed-forward and feed-backward communications protocol with supporting software to enable manufacturing systems to communicate during the fabrication process. This communications capability will allow fabrication machinery to automatically compensate for minor inconsistencies and process drift that could occur in the delicate wafer layering and etching process.

AMD and Honeywell plan to work on software specifications and code implementation of the new Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Framework proposed by SEMATECH. Honeywell is one of the largest commercial control suppliers, offering a broad base of technology and products. AMD will test the system in its new Fab 25 located in Austin, Texas. SEMATECH will conduct ongoing development of the CIM Framework and as results are demonstrated, transfer the technology to member companies.

"This is an exciting program for both AMD and the industry as a whole," said Jack Saltich, Vice President of AMD's Fab 25. "Technology developed by the consortium will help make our new Dresden facility more cost-effective to operate, and promises to extend the life of Fab 25 below the 0.25-micron technology range."

Achieving this high level of equipment integration requires precision system and process monitoring. The consortium will link an emerging generation of highly sensitive sensors with manufacturing controls through software created by the initiative. Current technology requires that a wafer be removed from the process line and physically spot checked for accuracy with some type of measurement tool. Advanced sensor technology and the consortium's software will allow precise monitoring and compensating adjustments during the actual layering and etching process, eliminating this interruption of the manufacturing process.

Also slated for development is an equipment fault detection system designed to extend equipment life and prevent malfunctions. This software helps manage predictive wear-out mechanisms in equipment and schedules required maintenance during planned shutdowns, preventing costly unscheduled down- time.

Wafer fabrication is the single largest capital investment in the semiconductor industry. A typical fab, the facility in which silicon wafers are manufactured, represents an investment of well over $1 billion. Improving equipment utilization in fabs is one of the most significant issues facing the semiconductor industry today.

The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cost-shares funding for work on experimental, highly flexible technologies to simplify the task of integrating and sharing real-time data among many different planning, tracking and control systems for the nation's manufacturing industries. This award was made under the department's Advanced Technology Program.

The consortium will fund 50.97% ($2,427,081) and NIST will fund 49.03% ($2,334,552) over the 27-month life of the APC initiative.

Honeywell is a global controls company focused on creating value through technology that enhances comfort, improves productivity, saves energy, protects the environment and increases safety. The company serves customers worldwide in the homes and buildings, industrial, aviation and space markets. Honeywell employs 50,000 people in 95 countries and had 1994 sales of $6.1 billion.

SEMATECH is an Austin, Texas-based consortium of American semiconductor manufacturers working with government and academia to solve the technical challenges required to keep the United States number one in the global semiconductor industry.

Focusing on personal and networked computing and communications markets, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., produces microprocessors and related peripherals, flash memories, programmable logic devices, and circuits for telecommunications and networking applications. Founded in 1969, AMD has sales and manufacturing facilities worldwide.

Additional information on the CIM Framework initiative is available on SEMATECH's home page, http://www.sematech.org.

WORLD WIDE WEB: Press announcements and other information about AMD are available on the Internet via the World Wide Web. Type http://www.amd.com at the URL prompt. -0-

GENERAL NOTICE: Product names used in this publication are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: AMD

John Wilkinson, 512/602-2292

or

Honeywell Inc.

Anne McCarthy, 602/313-5586

or

SEMATECH

John Pope, 512/356-3423