LDIA2019 - Invited talk

Since its founding in 1974, ETEL has been dedicated to the development of direct drive linear motor technology. Through numerous innovations and patented designs, ETEL continues to provide unmatched force efficiency for the most optimized designs. In the early 80ies the same concept of direct drive technology was extended to rotary motors, which led to the invention of the torque motor, applied for telescopes first and later extensively adopted by the machine tool industry. After introducing unique motor technologies in the market ETEL developed controllers with the scope of reaching the best possible motion performance in demanding applications such as semiconductor and electronics markets. In the following years, the “forward integration” led ETEL to become a key player in the motion system market by developing a variety of standard products targeting down to the Nanometer level.

This keynote is shedding light on the specific needs of the semiconductor and electronics equipment market in terms of motion system, mainly focusing on process control and assembly equipment. The main concern is oriented around two central elements: 1. Accuracy and 2. Throughput. The key challenge that is solved by the complete ETEL motion solution is to be able to perform both at the same time.

A bright example of typical requirements of the semiconductor front-end, and of delivered performance, comes with ETEL high end mechanical bearing based motion system. With 6 degrees of freedom (DOF), it runs at 2.5g acceleration and 1.5 m/s speed, while guaranteeing a 500 nm repeatability in positioning accuracy and less than 5 nm jitter at the tool point. On top of the base xy-motion system, several modular options for rotation and z-actuation of the wafer are part of ETELs offering, also the patented compact design of a Z actuator with an adjustable gravity compensation and negative stiffness. The technical details of this actuator are presented in a separate paper during the conference.

Most of the time, high-end applications in the semiconductor industry integrate complex equipment set-up, which, in one way or another, is connected to the granite of the motion platform. Some of those applications have stringent position stability requirements at the stage level, down to the nanometer range! Any vibration at the granite level therefore translates into inaccuracies and longer settling times at the process tool level. The QuiET active isolation system is a new module cancelling both stage-born and ground-born vibrations along 6 DOF, preventing them from disturbing the process taking place on top of your motion platform. With an acceleration feedforward accuracy reaching more than 99%, less than 1% of the energy generated by a motion stage movement remains at the granite level!

Another example, highlighted in this key note is ETEL’s force control feature, which is specifically designed to maximize throughput and precisely manage the contact force of diverse motion axes in the semiconductor back-end. The main benefits are such as: zero stop time, sensorless capability, and precise force control in sub-Newton range.

Also targeting the semiconductor back-end market, ETEL will present its new-born high-end dual gantry positioning system equipped with water cooled linear motors and a specific metrology equipment (Moving Metrology Frame) allowing ±1 µm positioning accuracy at the tool point while running at extremely high dynamics. Acceleration up to 80 m/s2 can be reached. This platform perfectly fits the next generation die bonding requirements for Fan-Out packages on wafer and large panel substrates (up to 720 mm x 650 mm) while reducing overall costs of ownership.