Pneumatic EV Manifold Retrofit Kits: Staying Ahead of the Problem

Submitted by mfischer on

The stakes are high in the world of semiconductor manufacturing. Industry standards are notoriously strict for wafers. If a batch comes out of the process that doesn’t quite meet these standards, the cost in terms of both time and money are astronomical. With this in mind, it becomes imperative that the equipment used in the wafer manufacturing process is always in top shape. One piece of equipment where this is particularly true is the EV manifold. Due to the nature of its use and design, it will stop working at some point.  Furthermore, because of the vast number of tools in the fleet, the equipment manager can often overlook the warning signs that a manifold needs repair.  

Are your old pneumatic manifolds failing?
 

Not only are EV manifolds difficult to maintain based on their design, but because they are no longer being produced, finding OEM replacement parts is next to impossible.  As most fabs do not have a preventative maintenance plan in place for these EV manifolds, they are figuratively playing with fire. All manifolds inside the aging 150- and 200-mm tools will eventually fail. A catastrophic event could be just around the corner, and before an entire batch of wafers is tainted and must be disposed of, the problem should be addressed.

In an effort to solve this challenge so many in the industry are having, Valin has introduced drop-in pneumatic EV manifold replacements for these semiconductor tools. These kits are new non-refurbished replacements for the manifolds. By installing a drop-in solution to retrofit these tools, process engineers can now address the valve failure issue before experiencing the problem of entire wafer batches coming out defective.

Our plug-n-play kits require no fabrication and can be installed in under 45 minutes.  As more semiconductor fabs face this challenge, our cost-effective solution allows them to avoid the expense of investing in new tools all together.

We are continuing to see more and more adoption of our solution, and the feedback has been incredible.  Last year, we had an article published on Automation.com that discussed this issue.  If you’re interested in reading the full article, click here.
 

Have questions?

Contact our team of semiconductor technical specialists at (855) 737-4716, or email our team at manifold@valin.com to learn more.