As LED demand grows rapidly, automation software and process control can get more from current manufacturing lines, and this can be as important as getting new lines up and running quickly, as PHIL WALKER explains.

It’s no secret that LED manufacturing is a booming business and is attracting the attention of hardware and material suppliers, industry analysts and even manufacturers from related sectors like the mainstream semiconductor industry. Across the industry, LED makers are intent on lowering cost and reducing variability in their production processes, and are searching for new mechanisms to help drive these reductions.

One new mechanism that is gaining popularity, for example, is a software solution that can trace a device from wafer to die, then to die-on-tape, and then to final product. Additional measurement steps have been added closer to the MOCVD tools that allow excellent correlation between tool settings, recipes and product performance. Some manufacturers also add in-situ metrology, which contributes even more data that can be correlated to product performance. This results in an opportunity to directly impact bin yield by merely adding software along with in-line measurement steps.

This article was published in the April/May 2011 issue of LEDs Magazine. To read the full version of this article, please visit our magazine page, where you can download FREE electronic PDF versions of all issues of LEDs Magazine. you can also request a print copy of LEDs Magazine (available by paid subscription) and sign up for our free weekly email newsletter.

About the Author 

PHIL WALKER is Global Product Manager of Automation Products with Applied Materials, a global supplier of capital equipment, software and services.