Maintenance Mindset: Meet Dextro, the robot performing maintenance on semiconductor equipment
In early December, Lam Research Corp. introduced Dextro, a collaborative robot for the semiconductor industry. Lam has long been investing in R&D for the autonomous fab, developing self-maintaining equipment, self-aware systems, self-adaptive processes and collaborative robots. Now Dextro is performing critical maintenance tasks on wafer fabrication equipment at multiple fabs around the world.
Lam says Dextro is more accurate and more precise than a human could ever be, and this could be a key to advancing U.S. semiconductor production. In some cases, semiconductor manufacturers may need robots because the number of open technician positions continues to outpace the availability of skilled engineers. By 2030, Deloitte predicts that more than one million additional skilled workers will be needed in the semiconductor industry. In 2021, the global semiconductor industry had revenues of more than $550 billion, and by 2030, those revenues are expected to increase by more than 80% to a trillion dollars.
Wafer fabrication equipment uses physics, chemistry, and in some cases robotics to create semiconductors at nanoscale. The fab’s hundreds of process tools need regular maintenance, and cobot Dextro can perform critical tasks with sub-micron precision.
"Dextro is an exciting leap forward in semiconductor manufacturing equipment maintenance. Built to work side-by-side with fab engineers, it executes complex maintenance tasks with precision and repeatability that are beyond human capability alone, enabling higher tool uptime and manufacturing yield," says Chris Carter, group vice president of the Customer Support Business Group at Lam Research.
Dextro is a mobile unit with a robotic arm, operated by a fab technician or engineer. With various end-effectors as hands, Dextro tackles critical equipment maintenance tasks that are time consuming and error-prone, such as installing and compressing consumable components, two times more accurately than manual application. The precise assembly of components is key to controlling etch performance at the wafer edge.
The cobot can also tighten vacuum-sealing bolts to exact specifications. This was a repetitive manual task for fab engineers with a 5% error rate. Meeting bolt specifications eliminates chamber temperature deviations, which could damage a tool and production. In yet another application, Dextro uses cleaning technology to remove side-wall polymer build-up within chamber without having to disassemble any part of the chamber itself. For humans to perform this cleaning task manually, they need protective breathing equipment.
The stakes are high for Dextro’s success. Chances are you couldn’t count the number of devices and appliances in your home and vehicles with chips that power our lives. With more powerful computing and AI applications, the demand for semiconductors isn’t slowing anytime soon. These delicate miniature chips require demanding production environments and a symphony of processes and equipment that depend on maintenance technicians and cobots to keep production in harmony.
The U.S. government also has a close eye on China and its semiconductor industry. We’ve made efforts not only to reshore production, but also to wound China’s market by controlling exports, and a formal trade investigation, announced in late December 2024) is looking into overcapacity issues in China that have negatively affected the U.S. domestic market.
There’s a lot riding on an industry that’s struggling to fill jobs, and on equipment maintenance to keep production humming. If there aren’t enough humans to put on the bunny suit (more on that in part three), more cobots like Dextro will surely be part of the maintenance team.
