Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

In the chip industry chain, the technology and products monopolized by foreign countries are not only lithography machines, but also EDA. The necessary industrial software in the process of chip manufacturing has also been monopolized by international giants for nearly 40 years. It is the butler of chip manufacturing: CIM (computer Integrated Manufacturing).

The brain CIM, which controls wafer production, is a life-level system that controls semiconductor manufacturing, which is called the manufacturing brain by the industry, and can be simply understood as a collection of manufacturing-related industrial software. It covers the whole life cycle of the product [1]. It is composed of dozens of software systems, such as MES (production execution system), EAP (equipment control platform), SPC (statistical process control), YMS (yield analysis control system), APC (advanced process control), PDC (fault detection and classification), RTS (FAB real-time scheduling system) and so on. [2]

In the whole CIM system, MES is particularly important, which determines the development level of the entire foundry, and the cost accounts for about 15% of the CIM system. Once there is a problem with the system, it will lead to a loss of hundreds of millions of yuan [3]. MES is a set of intelligent management system for directing chip manufacturing, including product flow definition, equipment management, material movement management, product tracking and process data management. Because of the core position of MES, the industry usually refers to CIM with MES, that is, CIM / MES.

Having said so much, what on earth does CIM do?

First, manage the manufacturing process as a whole to improve the yield and efficiency of production.

The second is to achieve automated intelligent manufacturing to help manufacturers deploy systems quickly and enhance competition in cost, quality and production cycle. [5]

Core-making is a game of capital. A fab has sprung up with an investment of tens of billions of dollars. when a fab is put into production, it is like a non-stop money printer every minute, making less money if it runs less. And a chip has to go through nearly thousands of manufacturing processes, and there is no room for mistakes in any link. CIM is the housekeeper who arranges all this properly, serving the production yield and efficiency, reducing the cost of each chip, and thus making more profits. [6]

With the increasing complexity of semiconductor devices and manufacturing processes, CIM has become an indispensable part of semiconductor manufacturing. Traditional solutions are often isolated or loosely connected, and it is difficult to expand additional requirements, while CIM can integrate all this [7]. ITRS 2007 pointed out that semiconductor wafer integration is divided into five parts: fab operation, production equipment, material processing, fab information, control system and facility. CIM-driven fab operation will be the driving force for other parts of the operation. [8]

The result of a study conducted by Toshiba in 1986 shows that four manufacturing indexes can be improved by using IC-CIM technology to produce 256kbyte DRAM memory circuits. [9]

According to the research results of Toshiba in 1986 [9] according to the statistics of some companies, one year after the CIM was put into use, the downtime of the equipment was reduced by 45%, the equipment setup time was shortened by 38%, the equipment utilization rate was increased by 30%, the cycle time was shortened by 23%, the waste product was reduced by 22.5%, the product yield was increased by 15%, the production cost was reduced by 34%, and the net profit increased by nearly 60%. [10]

It is found that the earlier CIM is put into use, the better the effect is. The entire life cycle of fab production is in an S-curve. For a fab with a cost of more than $20 billion, without using the CIM system, it will always fall short of the production target by hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, which means that the payback period of this part of the money will be extended, and the earlier the use of CIM, the sooner this part of the money can be recovered. [11]

The "S curve" shows the production target (green line) and the actual production situation (orange line), as well as the obstacles to achieving production capacity and yield goals (gray oval) [11] the concept of CIM was put forward by Joseph Harrington of the United States in his book "Computer Integrated Manufacturing" as early as 1973. It is not only the semiconductor industry that needs CIM, but also any scene that requires intelligent manufacturing. Such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, medical devices, aerospace, national defense and biotechnology, which once led the transformation of the semiconductor landscape.

In the early 1980s, the economic crisis in the United States spread to the whole society, and electronic products were no exception. Although American semiconductors are still strong in technology development, the share of their own products is getting lower and lower. Japanese companies such as Sony and Panasonic have begun to dominate the storage market and regard microprocessors as their next development goal.

In the mid-1990s, in just more than a decade, the United States regained its lost market. Political and strategic factors aside, SEMATECH (semiconductor manufacturing technology consortium) is undoubtedly the key to the evolution. It officially started operation in 1988 and is composed of the federal government and 14 large semiconductor companies, including IBM, Intel, Motorola, Texas Instruments and other industry giants [12]. With the blessing of US $200 million a year [13], manufacturing science and semiconductor technology in the United States began to merge, and CIM was one of the most critical parts of the development at that time.

You know, at that time, the total cost of a typical advanced manufacturing facility that could be produced in large quantities was more than $1 million (equivalent to tens or even tens of billions of dollars today). What is more difficult is that there is a risk of loss rate at each step of hundreds of processes in succession. At that time, the yield of integrated circuit manufacturing process could be as low as 20% or 80%. [9]

In 1991, SEMATECH launched the CIM framework project. since then, the American semiconductor manufacturing industry has ushered in a change. Under the blessing of CIM, the chip yield has been effectively improved, the product production cycle has also been shortened, and the product quality and performance have been guaranteed [14]. In 1998, SEMATECH developed the CIM framework specification, thus realizing an open multi-vendor CIM system environment in the semiconductor industry. [15]

Looking back at history, just more than ten years ago, the operation of wafer factories had to rely on workers pushing trolleys and personally pressing the start button to track products through spreadsheets, but now wafer production has the ability to integrate data from equipment and realize material handling automatically [16]. CIM is undoubtedly the key to making intelligent manufacturing move to a new level.

When chip manufacturing is gradually valued and vigorously developed in China, the domestic replacement of CIM is particularly important, but it is not as simple as imagined to do a good job of CIM.

It has been monopolized by two giants for nearly 40 years, and the entry threshold of CIM is very high, which is called the highland of industrial software by the industry.

As an industrial software covering all aspects of wafer production, CIM not only requires developers to have excellent software strength, but also knows every production process like the back of their hand, and seamlessly connects the two together. What is more difficult is that there are still many technical secrets (Know-how) in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, and it is difficult to enter this field without experienced people in the industry.

In addition, CIM does not simply stack the software together, but an organic combination, through highly customized with different manufacturers and different wafer factories, the original independent operation of multiple unit systems into a cooperative and more powerful new system [17] [18]. At the same time, the acceptable fault tolerance rate of the customer is also very low, and the software stability needs to reach 99.9999%. [19]

Even if you can build a CIM system, it will not be easy to replace the old system. For example, if you think of the round-the-clock semiconductor manufacturing plant as a high-speed aircraft, the CIM is the core engine that drives the plane's continuous flight, replacing the new CIM system is like driving the plane to change the engine. It can be seen that the field of CIM is very difficult. [20]

In recent years, the rise of 12-inch fab has led to the large-scale application of CIM. With the wafer size from 4 inches to 6 inches, 8 inches, 12 inches, not only the amount of investment has skyrocketed, manufacturing equipment, processes, processes have also become more complex, if CIM failure in this case, it will be a big loss, therefore, the market began to put forward higher requirements for CIM. [21]

But it is such a difficult industry, the global market is not very large. According to Technavio data, from 2021 to 2026, the potential market share of the entire CIM market (including photovoltaic manufacturing, pharmaceutical, semiconductor manufacturing, etc.) is $8.72 billion [22]; according to the IDC report, the overall market share of China's MES in 2021 is about 3.81 billion yuan [23]. In this case, the market share subdivided into semiconductors may be even less.

What is more embarrassing is that the core MES system in CIM accounts for only 1% of the total investment of the fab. Compared with the fab which is often tens of billions of yuan, it is very difficult to attract the attention of the industry, and the upstream manufacturers prefer to use mature solutions to deal with various problems in production. [24]

Fortunately, the global production capacity of new wafers is gradually increasing, and the demand for CIM from specific customers is increasing. According to SEMI's World Foundry Forecast report, the global semiconductor industry is expected to invest more than US $500 billion in the 84 large-scale chip manufacturing plants that will be built from 2021 to 2023. [25]

At present, the concentration of semiconductor CIM pattern is high, and applied materials (Applied Materials) and IBM are also called semiconductor CIM duo. The two companies have monopolized the market for nearly 40 years. From the perspective of development history, the technological time span of the two companies is also very long.

A brief history of the development of CIM, tabulation, hard technology reference materials of fruit shell, Core East and West, EEtimes [27], Wall Street Journal [28] Applied Materials and IBM both face the most advanced wafer foundries or IDM manufacturers in the world, but the focus of their development is not the same.

Applied Materials is not only the absolute leader of CIM, but also a leading enterprise of semiconductor equipment. After a large number of acquisitions of advanced CIM enterprises, the company takes the form of bundled sales of "software and hardware" to occupy one side of the market.

IBM is more inclined to AI cloud network combination, through the continuous acquisition of related companies to supplement technical capabilities, at the same time, IBM also has its own fab, which can accumulate experience in its own fab. [29]

Comparison of applied materials with IBM's CIM scheme, tabulation (fruit shell hard technology)

Domestic has achieved a preliminary replacement for the previous two years, CIM is still a niche track, with only a few domestic players, rarely favored by capital.

Since the sound of domestic alternative, coupled with the increase of attention in typical jam areas such as EDA and lithography, capital has paid more attention to CIM. In the second half of 2022, the investment and financing market began to be active, including Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Walden International, SAIC and its star investment institutions such as Hengxu Capital, BYD shares and Wei Hao Chuangxin.

Domestic CIM iconic financing events are not complete statistics, tabulation? shell hard technology throughout the domestic industry, are MES as the core of the CIM program, covering all aspects of manufacturing. In addition, most domestic manufacturers choose to lay out the pan-semiconductor industry with photovoltaic, LED, flat panel display and semiconductors as the core, and move to more industries such as lithium electricity and new energy, with a view to a larger market.

According to the micro-network article, at present, the CIM system in the packaging field has been basically swept by domestic manufacturers, which fully shows that foreign products are not irreplaceable, just be patient. In the traditional 12-inch MES, a preliminary breakthrough has been made in China in the past two years. [24]

The situation of major domestic CIM manufacturers, tabulation? fruit shell hard science and technology reference materials? company website, core intelligence news [30], 36 krypton [19] [31], micro network [32], investment community [33] [34] based on the current domestic situation, the fruit shell hard science and technology team thinks:

Although the scale of the CIM market is not as large as that of the physical chip industry, under the premise of the continuous expansion of specific customer demand and wafer production capacity, there is also a relatively broad profit space. According to micro-consulting information, the 12-inch wafer production capacity of domestic large silicon wafers is more than 6000 million wafers per year [35]. For domestic CIM, the combination with upstream wafers is of great significance. In addition, pan-semiconductor sub-industries have certain similarities. Domestic manufacturers should seize such an opportunity

Under the influence of geographical factors, it is of great significance for CIM to supplement the independent industrial chain, which can be understood as the relationship between lithography machine and photoresist. Even if the research and development is difficult and the payback period is long, it is necessary to have domestic independent controllable products, not to mention that CIM is still in the field of industrial software, which may also involve information security issues.

So far, there is no shortage of semiconductor CIM manufacturers in China, but for the wafer factories with huge investment, trying to use new products is undoubtedly a trial and error risk [29], which is why applied materials companies and IBM can firmly sit in the leading position. In view of the fact that in the past, domestic upstream manufacturers need to be wary of the situation that the CIM supplier is too single, they can try to adopt a two-line strategy at home and abroad, or even try the strategy of multiple suppliers.

Although domestic substitution has been initially realized, there is still a gap compared with foreign giants. In order to broaden the technological boundary of domestic CIM, we can learn from the development process of Applied Materials Company and IBM, constantly integrate mergers and acquisitions, and enhance technology concentration. In addition, domestic wafer factories or IDM manufacturers can also acquire related technologies and establish pure independent production lines.

According to Applied Materials, many areas of cross-fab are one of the most time-consuming factors in deployment. Due to the different conditions of each fab, it takes 6 to 12 months to move from one fab to another. At the same time, semiconductor automation system data often resides in different CIM applications with their own integration methods, and its SmartFactory CIM solution solves these problems, which can be used for reference in China. [36]

After the financing tide, a large number of CIM enterprises have emerged in China, but do not be impetuous. The investment logic in the semiconductor industry is different from most traditional industries, the overall payback period is longer, and the CIM field attaches more importance to experience accumulation. Some domestic manufacturers have said frankly that it is difficult to sell their products in the early 2-3 years, but once they survive this period, they will significantly increase their trust by iterating their products in a down-to-earth manner and accumulating reputation. It's a long-term business worth laying out.

Although the pattern of domestic CIM has been initially formed, it has to be admitted that there is still a gap between domestic and foreign countries. At present, China's industrial software development has ushered in the policy window period [37]. Looking forward to the next 5-10 years, semiconductor CIM may usher in an upsurge of development.

References:

Li Longmei, Zhang Liangliang, Feng Xin'an, et al. Feature-based product model in CIMS environment [J]. Mechanical Science and Technology, 1998, 17 (1): 129,131.

[2] Core enjoy the world: core enjoy Technology received hundreds of millions of yuan A + round financing, committed to semiconductor factory CIM industrial software localization. 2022.3.4. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s / scCZdmPEPD-6cKQy_MuRDg

[3] https://laoyaoba.com/: there are no shortcuts to sprint 12-inch fab MES system. 2022.9.26.

[4] Chung S L, Jeng M D. Manufacturing execution system (MES) for semiconductor setting [C] / / IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics. IEEE, 2002, 4: 5 pp. Vol. 4.

[5] Investment net: "Shanghai armoured Platinum" received nearly 100 million yuan A round financing to promote the localization of pan-semiconductor CIM system. 2022.5.5. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s / CvE6S1MLlSpPAN51JqbkWQ

Zheng Cheng, Zhang Jie, Lu Youlong, Xu Hongwei. Wafer yield optimization method based on improved particle swarm optimization [J / OL]. Computer Integrated Manufacturing system: 1-17 [2022-12-22].

[7] Taj, Md. Nasim. Prospects of Automation in Semiconductor Fabrication Process[J] .DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35956.42886

[8] SIA:International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (2007 Edition Lithography) https://www.semiconductors.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/2007Lithography.pdf

[9] May G S, Spanos C J. Fundamentals of semiconductor manufacturing and process control [M]. John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

[10] ResearchGate:A Semiconductor Company turns to Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) to Improve Business Performance.2006.1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294873853_A_Semiconductor_Company_turns_to_Computer_Integrated_Manufacturing_CIM_to_Improve_Business_Performance

[11] Applied Materials Co., Ltd.: closer to actual production. Https://appliedsmartfactory.com/ zh-hans / blog / bringing-production-reality-closer-to-target/?hilite=driving+curve

[12] Nan Zuomin. SEMATECH: from concept renewal to industrial evolution [J]. Economic Forum, 2004 (05): 125,126.

[13] Semiconductor industry observation: American semiconductors smashed out by "real gold and silver". 2020.6.7. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s / tzD0RMoNusjeNAnGt-R24w

[14] Doscher D, Hodges R. SEMATECH's experiences with the CIM framework [J]. Communications of the ACM, 1997, 40 (10): 82-84.

[15] Cheng F T, Teng C Y. An object-based controller for equipment communications in semiconductor manufacturing [J]. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 2002, 18 (5-6): 387402.

[16] Applied Materials Co., Ltd.: towards a new level of intelligent manufacturing. 2022.4. Https://appliedsmartfactory.com/ wp-content / uploads / 2022 uploads 04 / moving-to-a-new-level-of-intelligent-manufacturing_Chinese.pdf

[17] Advanced Manufacturing Technology and its Development trend-- speech by Professor Yang Shuzi at the 2003 Annual meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology (excerpt). Http://43.250.236.5 / GB / guandian / 1035/2136994.html

[18] Li Yuyang, Li Zhenghao. Wafer manufacturing CIM domestic software prospect is promising [N]. China Business Daily, 2022-08-15 (C04).

[19] 36 krypton: 36 krypton exclusive | "rising Software" has completed hundreds of millions of yuan D-round financing and continued to promote the research and development of semiconductor 12-inch production line CIM. 2022.10.25. Https://36kr.com/ pamp 1972480531451011

[20] GE Chuang Dong Zhi Getech: how difficult is it to change the engine and replace the CIM system in a plane? .2022.11.11. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s / hB2FECpgx7Ug0qCcX7fuRQ

[21] Kyber Armoured Platinum Cloud: semiconductor CIM system: "two Super League" struggle for Supremacy "Qunqingqi". 2022.6.30. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s / iWxCwKjUOP94152pu0PlMA

[22] PR Newswire:Computer Integrated Manufacturing Market-35% of Growth to Originate from North America | Driven by Steep Learning Curve of CIM Software | Technavio.2022.4.18

[23] IDC: "China Manufacturing MES Market Analysis and manufacturer share, 2021" officially released. 2022.12.1. Https://www.idc.com/ getdoc.jsp?containerId=prCHC49926622

[24] Micronetwork: [core field of vision] trial and error is not easy to break through, but it is difficult for domestic semiconductor CIM to grow. 2022.8.12. Https://laoyaoba.com/ name828796

[25] Electronic information industry website: SEMI predicts that the investment in new factories in the global semiconductor industry will exceed US $500 billion by 2024. 2022.12.13. Http://www.cena.com.cn/ semi / 20221213/118370.html

[26] Core things: monopolized for 40 years! Semiconductor manufacturing "brain" welcomes the heat of financing, is the spring of domestic MES enterprises coming? .2021.11.15. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s/3SmwkLAH0falRhXv6VqCog

[27] EEtimes:Applied's Consilium software unit opens Japanese office.1993.12.3. https://www.eetimes.com/applieds-consilium-software-unit-opens-japanese-office/

[28] Wall Street Journal: Applied Materials to Acquire Consilium for up to $42 Million.1998.12.12. https://www.wsj.com/ articles / SB908229569677085000

[29] Semiconductor industry observation: start the domestic industrial software qualifier! .2022.7.11. Http://www.semiinsights.com/ s / electronic_components / 23/46062.shtml

[30] Xin Zhi News: pan-semiconductor CIM system company Gorelli completes 300 million yuan C round financing, promoting semiconductor 12-inch domestic MES software to land. 2021.11.12. Http://www.icsmart.cn/ 49190 /

[31] 36 Krypton: "Semet" raised 540 million yuan, and BYD, Hillhouse and Internet funds all took a fancy to domestic industrial software | 36 Krypton exclusive .2022.6.29. Https://36kr.com/ pinning 1804553817605383

[32] Mini-net: Huajing Information, a software company in the semiconductor industry, has completed tens of millions of yuan A round financing. 2022.10.4. Https://www.laoyaoba.com/ name834197

[33] Investment community: GE Chuang Dong Zhi received hundreds of millions of yuan in round B financing to focus on intelligent manufacturing upgrading in the semiconductor industry. 2022.11.4. Https://news.pedaily.cn/ 202211/503219.shtml

[34] Investment community: "Peta Technology" received nearly 100 million yuan A round financing, Hefei Industrial Investment and Yaotu Capital jointly led investment. 2022.11.22. Https://news.pedaily.cn/ 202211/504064.shtml

[35] Daily IC: micro consultation: 12-inch planned production capacity of more than 6000 million wafers / year, domestic large silicon wafer short-term supply increase is limited. 2022.4.20. Https://mp.weixin.qq.com/ s / Dpv4_K_HgHoUwNsraO3crA

[36] Applied Materials: using industry-proven turnkey CIM solutions to achieve key factory KPI. https://appliedsmartfactory.com/ zh-hans / blog / cim-solution/

[37] China Service Trade Guide Network: experts: China's industrial software development ushered in the policy window. 2022.6.20. Http://tradeinservices.mofcom.gov.cn/ article / yanjiu / pinglun / 202206/134491.htm

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: fruit Shell hard Technology (ID:guokr233), author: Fu Bin, Editor: Li Tuo

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