Savantech is a leading global supplier of equipment automation software (CoreTegral) and services to complex manufacturing industries. We have been helping our customers increase yield, improve productivity and obtain the most from their equipment since January 2005. Our experience in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, earned from having produced hundreds of equipment automation solutions over the last two decades, can help you return excellent ROI and achieve operational efficiencies that will make your business fly.
In today's high-tech manufacturing industry, companies are under ever-increasing pressure to distinguish themselves from their competitors. It is not enough to simply design world-beating products, they must ensure that their manufacturing facilities are operating at maximum productivity whilst retaining the flexibility to meet rapidly changing market demands.
Equipment automation is an extremely cost-effective means of increasing the ROI of the entire semiconductor manufacturing facility. Full-fab automation is not an option for most existing semiconductor/MEMS manufacturing facilities, and is, indeed, not usually the best solution.
Excellent ROI can be achieved by automating a select set of key equipment in the first instance, to address pressing problems of scrap, poor throughput or poor process yield. As the cost benefit of automating those tools is proven, further functionality can be introduced and/or further tools automated. Savantech Limited offers a complete package of tailored solutions and services to help you realise the many benefits to be gleaned from implementing tool automation.
Savantech offer a comprehensive range of software services to the Semiconductor Manufacturing, Solar/PV, MES and EMS industries.
Benefits of tool automation
We work with industry-leading software products, ensuring that our customers never find themselves with out-of-date or unsupported systems. We have integrated to all of the major factory-level MES, OEE, and APC systems available on the market today as well as several in house developments.
CoreTegral® is Savantech's deployment and management environment for distributed high-availability systems, focussing on low solution maintenance effort.
It provides an environment for rapid development of consistent, robust automation solutions, utilising visual and easily modifiable workflow business logic.
CoreTegral applications are created using the MS Visual Studio development environment, which both minimises the need for industry-specific software development skills and allows ease of maintenance once deployed.
In addition, there is a growing library of existing plug-in functionality e.g. Resource Management System (RMS), MES- and tool-specific connection components.
CoreTegral was launched at Semicon West 2010, and has continued to be actively developed and enhanced thereafter.
Please use the menu on the left to learn about the unique features of this exciting new product.
CoreTegral has several Unique Selling Points that elevate it above competing products:
(View example images of the environment features described above)
In 2007 the Savantech team identified that within the high-tech manufacturing industry there is a need for an equipment automation/integration product that will be flexible, adaptable, grow with a business and be simple to maintain on an ongoing basis. In order to achieve this, we determined that it was imperative that the platform not be proprietary or require specialist program language skills, but makes use of industry standard development tools.
Incumbent systems in the industry tend to be large and complex, and need either specialist internal resource or external consultants to maintain them. They have typically been written in proprietary technologies both due to inadequacies in the mainstream tools at the time, and also perhaps with the intention of securing long-term revenue from service/maintenance support. Critically, some are now end-of-life due to either the underlying technology being declared obsolete or the automation system becoming unsupported, with the only alternatives being expensive, overly complex and offering no migration path. CoreTegral was planned to be written in an industry standard program language which would allow customer end users to much more easily maintain the system. This unique and innovative approach is at the very heart of our new product.
The team who have developed CoreTegral are deeply steeped in the art of equipment integration and have invested all that they have learnt from their many years' experience in the industry into the product. As developers, we have focused on creating an environment that is tremendously flexible and instantly familiar to anyone versed in developing C# in the Visual Studio environment, whilst ensuring that all of the content and facilities that enable easy development of tool integration solutions in a high-tech manufacturing environment are readily to hand. As a company offering long-term support and maintenance for customers with automation solutions written in legacy systems, we have identified the most troublesome and oft-seen issues and worked hard to create supportive and capable deployment and management tools that trivialise what might otherwise be testing problems.
We believe that this fresh approach of making the maintenance easy for our customers, whilst offering specialist support and services, combined with the security of not relying on non-mainstream technologies, will prove an attractive and winning proposition.
The CoreTegral approach is to keep the product as lightweight as possible, utilising templates to increase productivity in creating site-specific solutions, without trying to second-guess all required functionality and scenarios in advance. Experience has shown that a ‘middle-ground’ template driven approach is more effective than either a toolkit approach or a pre-built monolithic solution approach. Re-invention of the wheel has been avoided as much as possible, and the standard Microsoft development environment and mainstream interface driven coding practice has been adopted.
It has been built from the ground up using C# within the .Net environment, but embodies many of the most successful algorithms, lessons and concepts encountered by the developers in the creation of bespoke factory automation solutions and products over the last 20 years.
CoreTegral has at its centre a base product that is an automation framework. This can be used in any manufacturing environment where there are complex tools involved. Built upon the core is tailored semiconductor functionality which specifically focuses upon the demands of integrating to tools with SECS interfaces and with the most common MES and other fab-level systems. Savantech also offer optional components within this layer - such as Recipe Management, Lot Identification and Automated Material Handling System integration - and which can be purchased to add new and higher level functionality as and when a company need them.
Finally, there is still be a requirement for specific logic services to tailor the product to the individual needs of an specific customer location. This final layer, the "application layer", is where CoreTegral users have free reign to customise and map solutions that fit their exact requirements. CoreTegral ships with working example template solution code, a web-based status UI and access to SQL Reporting services that facilitate full visibility into the heart of the automation solution.
(view some example images of the above features)
We recognise that every customer has different needs and specific requirements that will impact their equipment automation solution purchasing decisions. To that end, we have developed two main options for purchasing CoreTegral.
This purchase model is for customers who prefer to pay up-front for the CoreTegral platform and then use it for their own internal developments. The customer is granted licence to use CoreTegral site wide at that fab location.
This, our recommended option for customers purchasing CoreTegral, offers a partnership whereby Savantech will supply both the software and the services to implement specific tool solutions.
Savantech personnel will deliver a package comprising both the CoreTegral solution for the first target tool type, and a template for all future automation solutions for that customer.
If you would like further information about purchasing CoreTegral, please don't hesitate to contact us and we would be delighted to provide you with all the information required.
In the field of semiconductor manufacturing, every nanoscopic measurement counts. As we delve deeper into new process nodes, the need for accuracy and the volume of data generated escalates dramatically.
Savantech solutions are designed to optimise processes,enhance quality, and boost yield. However, the challenge lies in discerning valuable insights from the petabytes of data generated. This is where robust data management practices come into play.
The full article explores new strategies for interpreting data variability. It discusses the role of machine learning models in handling large data sets, the importance of data quality, and the increasing focus on understanding and dealing with variability in data.
If you are interested in learning more about data variability, read the entire article here, and keep in mind that at Savantech,we specialise in crafting customised solutions for unique challenges.
In the field of semiconductor manufacturing, every nanoscopic measurement counts. As we delve deeper into new process nodes, the need for accuracy and the volume of data generated escalates dramatically.
Savantech solutions are designed to optimise processes,enhance quality, and boost yield. However, the challenge lies in discerning valuable insights from the petabytes of data generated. This is where robust data management practices come into play.
The full article explores new strategies for interpreting data variability. It discusses the role of machine learning models in handling large data sets, the importance of data quality, and the increasing focus on understanding and dealing with variability in data.
If you are interested in learning more about data variability, read the entire article here, and keep in mind that at Savantech,we specialise in crafting customised solutions for unique challenges.
In the semiconductor manufacturing industry, the concept of process drift is becoming increasingly significant. A recent article discusses the importance of predicting and preventing process drift, a topic that resonates with the work we do at Savantech Ltd. Process drift refers to the gradual deviation of process parameters from their set points, which can subtly alter the electrical properties of chips, leading to functional and reliability issues. This can occur in any of the hundreds of process steps involved in manufacturing a single wafer.
At Savantech, we understand the criticality of such minor variances and have developed world-class Equipment Automation software solutions to tackle them. Our solutions help in maximising the productivity and flexibility of existing manufacturing facilities, thereby ensuring high yield and profitability.
The article highlights that even minor fluctuations in deposition rates during a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, for example, can lead to inconsistencies in layer uniformity, which can impact the electrical isolation properties essential for reliable circuit operation. Similarly, slight variations in a photolithography step can cause alignment issues between layers, leading to shorts or open circuits in the final device.
At advanced nodes and in dense advanced packages, where a nanometer can be critical, controlling process drift is vital for maintaining high yield and ensuring profitability. By rigorously monitoring and correcting for drift, engineers can ensure that production consistently meets quality standards, thereby maximising yield, and minimising waste.
We invite you to delve deeper into the complexities of process drift and discover how to unlock efficiency with Savantech: Tailored Solutions for Tomorrow.
In the semiconductor manufacturing industry, the concept of process drift is becoming increasingly significant. A recent article discusses the importance of predicting and preventing process drift, a topic that resonates with the work we do at Savantech Ltd. Process drift refers to the gradual deviation of process parameters from their set points, which can subtly alter the electrical properties of chips, leading to functional and reliability issues. This can occur in any of the hundreds of process steps involved in manufacturing a single wafer.
At Savantech, we understand the criticality of such minor variances and have developed world-class Equipment Automation software solutions to tackle them. Our solutions help in maximising the productivity and flexibility of existing manufacturing facilities, thereby ensuring high yield and profitability.
The article highlights that even minor fluctuations in deposition rates during a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, for example, can lead to inconsistencies in layer uniformity, which can impact the electrical isolation properties essential for reliable circuit operation. Similarly, slight variations in a photolithography step can cause alignment issues between layers, leading to shorts or open circuits in the final device.
At advanced nodes and in dense advanced packages, where a nanometer can be critical, controlling process drift is vital for maintaining high yield and ensuring profitability. By rigorously monitoring and correcting for drift, engineers can ensure that production consistently meets quality standards, thereby maximising yield, and minimising waste.
We invite you to delve deeper into the complexities of process drift and discover how to unlock efficiency with Savantech: Tailored Solutions for Tomorrow.
