Semiconductor Equipment Service
Customers ship their equipment to AESG for automation repair and/or refurbishment. Both the automation repair and refurbishment processes begin with a complete diagnostic test to determine the current functionality of the robot, pre-aligner and controller. The robotic diagnostic test determines wear to mechanical components such as bearings belts and gears. It also determines burnout of the electrical components such as the servomotors and drivers. The pre-aligner and wafer handler controller diagnostics determine issues with orientation, calibration and alignment.
Automation repair is done on specific problems specified by the customer or on problems determined through the complete diagnostic test. Refurbishments of robots include a very specific list of tasks including replacement of all worn components, belts, flex cables and tubing, rebuilding of the ball screw and servomotors, alignment of robot and verification of functionality of encoders and sensors. Refurbishment of controllers includes replacement of defective electrical components determined during failure diagnostics and replacement of worn or damaged fans and CPU board batteries.
After automation repair or refurbishment a burn-in test is performed on the robot and for 48 hours. This test requires the robot to move wafers at production speeds to determine if problems found during the diagnostics have been fixed in addition to assuring repeatability of performance. Final testing of a wafer handler controller includes running it with a robot and or pre-aligner moving wafers under normal conditions for 48 hours. The equipment is checked periodically during the burn-in test to determine any malfunctions or misalignments.
AESG specializes in automation repair and refurbishment of PRI/Euipe and Kensington equipment. There are approximately 30-40,000 PRI/Equipe machines and 10,000 Kensington machines in the marketplace.
AESG does offer field service repair however the company has found that it is more cost efficient to have the robots shipped to their facility, refurbished and then shipped back to the customer. Most facilities do not have proper repair labs to handle these semiconductor equipment services. |
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