Many established semiconductor manufacturers expand their existing production facilities with equipment from the secondary market. Most of the providers of such reconditioned tools have a  lack of necessary know-how to install the process. Often these old systems must be brought technologically up to date before they can be even used. I offer this engineering service for tool  installations - short term, predictable and effective.

Your existing processes are running in production for years. However, the process recipes are often written by the motto "more is better" or they have "organically" evolved over the years, but no one knows why individual steps were added and whether they are really necessary. The overall process consists of the same processes sequences for years and at any doubt it is preferred to clean once too often than too little. I can help you to clean up the process recipes and reduce the process time to the essential. Higher throughput and lower chemical consumption pay off quickly.

In the semiconductor industry, there are cyclical variations in the requirement of process engineering services. As an external service provider I can step in directly in the production line as a process engineer without extensive training when bottlenecks occur due to illness, vacation or heavy orders.

System development should start with the actual semiconductor process and its specific features. The process engineering, the mechanical and electrical components, the system control and the automation solely have to serve the purpose of supporting the wet chemical process optimally. Unfortunately this is not always the case and the process result is at the end of the considerations in the development of a production tool. I will help you to focus on process relevant issues during your design phase of your new equipment.

If your tools have been delivered, you want to bring the equipment as soon as possible to toll acceptance. Usually, it turn out on site that the specific requirements of the customer need adjustments of the process settings. It is important to understand the customer s needs in a short time and to respond accordingly. My many years of experience in this field guarantee fast and effective tool acceptance time without loss of reputation.

Before buying a wet chemical tool, a demonstration of the process at a test site is an important milestone. In most cases of a customer demonstration it is necessary to achieve the best results with only a small number of test substrates and an unknown chip design in a limited temporal frame. If a customer demonstration fails, there is usually no second chance for success. Hence, for customer demos only put trust in process engineers with many years of practical experience and interdisciplinary understanding of the overall process.

Novel mixtures of chemicals for the semiconductor industry must be suitable for different tool platforms. Pre-tests are usually carried out in beakers or immersion tanks, but spraying systems may need a different chemical composition. Similarly, there are large differences between single-wafer and batch processes. In collaboration with end users Fabs I can be helpful in the introduction and development of new chemicals into existing production environments.

I am happy to assist if you want to test new chemicals or OEM components into existing production facilities. I can help you to find the optimal process parameters and adjust the equipment for your needs.