- Lam’s new cobot, Dextro™, helps chipmakers save time and costs
- Dextro is being used in multiple advanced wafer fabs around the world
Imagine a workspace where humans and robots work side by side, seamlessly enhancing productivity and safety in fabs. This vision is a reality with Dextro™, the first collaborative robot (cobot) built specifically for semiconductor manufacturing equipment maintenance.
Unlike traditional industrial robotics, where material is moved to the robot without human interaction, Dextro is mobile and designed to support engineers and technicians working in the fab, offloading maintenance tasks that are often time-consuming, error-prone, or hazardous.
Why it matters: As fabs continue to grow in size, geographic diversity, and equipment complexity, cobots can help chipmakers optimize the cost, efficiency, and repeatability of tool maintenance.
- A typical fab will have hundreds of tools that each require regular, complex maintenance.
- Precision is critical in tool maintenance, where the accurate assembly of subsystems translates to the bottom line.
- Accurate, repeatable maintenance helps reduce waste, labor, and production downtime, leading to less variability and higher yield in production.
See Dextro in action:
Dextro is now deployed in multiple advanced wafer fabs around the world. A single cobot unit can service 50 to 100 chambers in Lam tools that require monthly maintenance.
- Lam’s Flex® G and H series dielectric etch tools are currently supported by Dextro, expanding to additional tools and applications in 2025 and beyond.
“When manufacturing equipment requires maintenance, the work must be done quickly and efficiently to avoid extended tool downtime and wasted cost,” said Young Ju Kim, vice president and head of the Memory Etch Technology Team at Samsung Electronics.
“Error-free maintenance by Dextro helps drive improvements in production variability and yield,” he said. “This is an exciting milestone in Samsung’s journey to the autonomous fab.”
Fast Precision
Dextro is a mobile unit on a cart with a robotic arm controlled by a fab technician or engineer. It uses various end-effectors, or “hands,” to manage three critical equipment maintenance tasks:
- Dextro precisely installs and compresses consumable components with more than two times the accuracy of manual application. A well-assembled sub-assembly helps control etch performance at the wafer edge, improving yield.
- Dextro tightens vacuum-sealing high-precision bolts to exact specifications, relieving fab engineers of a repetitive task that has up to a 5% error rate when done manually. Accurately meeting specifications eliminates chamber temperature deviations that may take a tool out of production and impact die yield.
- Dextro uses automation and cleaning technology to remove any side-wall polymer build-up within the chamber, without the burden of disassembly of the lower chamber. Importantly, it is able to do this much more safely than humans who require heavy protective breathing equipment to perform the task manually.
Cobot Future
In the AI era, as fabs grow larger and maintenance more complex, cobots are expected to play an increasingly important role. Their ability to work alongside humans, adapt to new tasks, and improve safety and efficiency makes them a key player in the future of wafer fabrication equipment.
Related Information
- Lam Research’s Equipment Intelligence Wins Innovative Product of the Year
- From TSMC's Supplier Award to Forbes' Recognition, Explore Lam Research's Impact on Semiconductor Innovation and CSR
- Flex Product Family