PhD Studentship in Energy Reduction Methodologies for High Volume Wafer Fabrication Tools, Used in Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing

Sponsor Company: Tokyo Electron Europe Limited

Eligibly: Available to All Students

Funding Source: Industrial

Supervisors: Professor Richard McMahon, Dr Andrew McGordon

Research Group: Steels Processing

Subject Areas: Electrical Engineering, Energy Technologies, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Systems Engineering, Semiconductors

Project Description

Tokyo Electron Ltd (TEL) is the leading supplier of manufacturing equipment for the global semiconductor industry. TEL is a Japanese headquartered company, with >750 staff in Europe located in 12 countries. TEL equipment is used in the manufacture of advanced logic, AI accelerators memory, sensors, MEMS, photonics, power devices and AR/VR products by world leading brands across multiple industry verticals. As part of a global TEL Sustainability Initiative, the researcher will investigate electricity usage within several TEL tool types (Lithius ProZ, TELINDY batch oven tool, Tactras etch tool) to measure and model, how energy is consumed at a module and system level under various customer operating use cases. With this knowledge, the researcher will develop software / modelling tools to recommend commercially viable tool operating strategies to reduce energy consumption without detrimental effects on tool performance in a high-volume manufacturing scenario for the >6,000 TEL tools installed at customer in Europe. The operational impact in terms of energy savings and reduced environmental impact and operating costs are to be assessed. A further novel objective is to consider the energy consumption of the tool in context of fabrication plant whole system energy use.

The researcher will be primarily based at University of Warwick, with planned travel to Ireland and potentially to semiconductor fabrication sites in which TEL tools are operational, particularly in Europe. The research will have a direct commercial purpose, and the final part of the research will be to validate the suggested modifications to reduce energy consumption.

You will work as part of a team at WMG and TEL, interacting at all levels of the business, defining the needs of the project and managing its progress and delivery.

As a minimum, we will need the following: enthusiasm for working in semiconductor processing, excellent analytical skills together with the ability to work with TEL staff, excellent oral and written communication skills, including a patient approach to research activities Ideally, the candidates would have knowledge of manufacturing or engineering, as well as an ability to pursue research both alone and as part of a multi-disciplinary team, a proven ability to problem solve, a passion for sustainability.

This is a unique opportunity to support the development of commercial Sustainability Technology in collaboration with a leading company in the Global Semiconductor Industry. The project is an ideal opportunity for an engineer with interests in complex system design, manufacturing, sustainability and energy efficiency.

Advert information