PRI Announces Innovative New Wafer Stocker
- New Product Minimizes WIP Storage Footprint by Storing and Transporting 200mm and 300mm Wafers Between Multiple Floors in a Fab -
BILLERICA, Mass., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- PRI Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq: PRIA - news), the global leader in semiconductor factory automation, today announced availability of the TurboStocker XT(TM). The TurboStocker XT combines high-speed vertical transport with storage of work-in-process wafers between multiple floors in the fab.
''Semiconductor manufacturers are continually looking for ways to improve the efficiency of their manufacturing operations by reducing costs and increasing productivity,'' said Mitch Tyson, president and chief executive officer, PRI Automation. ''The TurboStocker XT provides an innovative way to address fab-wide material handling requirements that reduces wafer delivery times and saves expensive cleanroom floorspace in their manufacturing operations.''
''The TurboStocker XT extends the benefits of our leading wafer storage products by offering customers greater choice in how they store and transport wafer lots to meet a wider variety of requirements,'' said Bob Postle, vice president and general manager, factory systems division. ''We saw a real opportunity, particularly in Asia where space is limited and many manufacturers have had to build multi-floor production facilities, to develop a product that stores wafers between floors and minimizes WIP storage footprint in the process tool area.''
''The growth of the industry is being fueled by increased demand for less expensive semiconductor products,'' concluded Tyson. ''Manufacturers are being driven to look for ways to increase their capacity to produce more chips at lower prices. Our goal is to give customers all the factory automation tools they need to transform their manufacturing process into an intelligent, fab- wide integrated system that maximizes total manufacturing efficiency and improves productivity.''
By moving WIP storage between floors, the TurboStocker XT can reduce cleanroom WIP storage footprint as much as 75% by minimizing the number of stockers required on the production floor. This gives manufacturers greater flexibility in creating the manufacturing environment they need to achieve their business goals and remain competitive. Connecting multiple production floors together with the TurboStocker XT creates a single, integrated manufacturing environment with greater flexibility in routing work-in-process wafers. Manufacturers can use the freed-up floorspace to reduce the size of the cleanroom or add more process tools to increase manufacturing capacity.
The TurboStocker XT incorporates many of the same system features found on current 200mm and 300mm TurboStocker products including the I/O, user interface, and the robot arm. The new system also integrates with PRI's interbay AeroTrak(TM) and intrabay AeroLoader(TM) wafer transport systems and TransNet(TM) material control software. The TurboStocker XT has scalable standard height configurations up to thirty meters (approximately 98 feet) for a maximum storage capacity of 540 wafer carriers. Storage modules can be integrated at any point along the vertical axis including positions in the sub-fab or air plemum. These flexible configurations allow manufacturers to create the optimum storage configuration to fit their facility requirements.
PRI continues to lead the industry by offering the broadest range of factory automation systems including interbay storage and transport systems, intrabay transport systems, reticle management systems, tool automation systems, manufacturing execution system (MES) software, material control software (MCS), equipment integration software, and advanced planning and scheduling software.
About PRI Automation
PRI Automation, Inc., headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, is the leading global supplier of advanced factory automation systems and software that optimize the productivity of semiconductor and precision electronics manufacturers as well as OEM process tool manufacturers. PRI is the only company to provide a tightly integrated and flexible hardware and software solution that optimizes the flow of products, data, materials and resources throughout the production chain. The company has thousands of systems installed at approximately one hundred locations throughout the world. For more information visit PRI online at www.pria.com.
AeroTrak, AeroLoader, TurboStocker XT, and TransNet are trademarks of PRI Automation.
SOURCE: PRI Automation, Inc.
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