Manufacturing Technology Program Research Articles

Application of Modular Fixture Interface in CAD Software for Jigs and Fixtures Design Teaching Aids

Jigs and Fixtures Design are (is) among the core subjects offered at the diploma and degree level of Manufacturing Technology programs. Each student is assigned to create a specific jig design in their assignment task. The scope of the assignments covers a range of processes starting from the generation of ideas, sketches, technical drawings and eds with the prototype development. However, in previous batches of students, they were struggling with the issue of limited equipment and prototype development skills which consequently affects the quality of prototype being produced. To overcome this problem, a modular has been developed using CAD software to help students applying the components that are ready to be used as a jig to hold the workpiece. Through this idea generation method, students just need to select the existing components to develop the jig. They can also use the modular to assist them in their presentation. The results obtained from the use of modular show that students are able to reduce the time taken in developing the jig and are able to visualize the final product based on the proposed ideas.

Resources and Partnerships in Community College Manufacturing Technology Programs

ABSTRACTThe Connecticut (CT) State Colleges and Universities’ College of Technology (COT) and its Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (RCNGM), a National Science Foundation (NSF) Center of Excellence, educate manufacturing technicians with necessary skills as needed by the manufacturing industry. The COT-RCNGM continuously broadens its partnerships with other community colleges, high schools and industry in New England and at the national and international levels to provide support and expertise to both students and educators in advanced manufacturing programs. The COT was founded in 1995 through state legislation to create and implement seamless pathways in engineering and technology. This system-wide collaboration of all twelve CT public community colleges, including seven state-of-the-art Advanced Manufacturing Technology Centers (AMTC) at CT’s community colleges; eight public and private universities; technical high and comprehensive high schools; and representatives from industry, including the CT Business & Industry Association (CBIA) which represents 10,000 companies. The pathways have multiple points of entry and exit for job placement and stackable credentials for degree completion, including national certifications that have increased enrollments and created program stability.The COT is led by the Site Coordinators Council that meets monthly and consists of faculty and deans from all COT educational partners and representatives from industry and government. The Council identifies and reviews new programs, concentrations, and certificates based on industry needs and creates seamless articulated pathways. Final approval is often completed within three months for immediate implementation, allowing a timely response to workforce needs. The COT-RCNGM partners with CBIA to conduct a biannual survey of manufacturing workforce needs in CT. Educators use the survey to identify curricular needs and support funding proposals for educational programs. Asnuntuck Community College, the original AMTC, was able to use industry data from the survey to help create new programs. The RCNGM partners with other NSF grants and entities such as the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). The COT-RCNGM produced DVDs profiling students who have completed COT programs and work in CT manufacturing companies. The Manufacture Your Future 2.0 and the You Belong: Women in Manufacturing DVDs are distributed nationally to increase knowledge of career opportunities in manufacturing. Finally, the COT-RCNGM organizes the Greater Hartford Mini Maker Faire that brings together community members of all ages and backgrounds to share projects that promote interest in STEM fields. Participation in the Maker Movement led to involvement in a national network of Maker Faire organizers including a meeting at the White House where one organizer from each state was invited to attend and discuss the national impact of Makers.

Traceability: Availability and Efficiency among Food Industries in Ghana

Food traceability systems availability and efficiency was investigated using 74 food businesses along the food chain in Ghana. Questionnaire with closed and open ended questions were given to purposefully sampled staff in key positions in the food businesses to answer on qualification of technical personnel, availability of documentation procedure and how these businesses were controlling traceability systems. Most food businesses were using Higher National Diploma graduates in the technical/supervisory positions. Documentation was poor and although there was awareness on trace- ability across the food businesses, implementation and maintenance was not effective. Only 23.8% manufactur- ing/processing units, 20% hospitals, 16.7% hotels and 14.8% schools could complete traceability test within 4 hours. It was recommended that more short training programmes on quality and safety be designed for workers in the food in- dustry by appropriate institutions while science students from the Senior High Schools are encouraged to enroll on food science and food manufacturing technology programs to improve on the current situation.

Recent Research on Computer-Aided Fixture Planning

Fixtures are used to locate, hold and support workpieces in manufacturing operations such as machining, inspection, and assembly. Designing and fabricating fixtures can take up to 10-20% of the total cost of a manufacturing system. Fixture planning is a complex activity restricted by the extreme diversity of workpiece, product batch size, product geometry, part accessibility, and working force. Computer-Aided Fixture Planning (CAFP) has been used to improve the fixture design for over 20 years. CAFP contributes to the reduction of lead-time and human interaction in fixture planning. It helps verification of the fixture quality and integration of fixture design with CAD/CAM systems. This paper summarizes constraints of fixture planning and four phases of CAFP. Various approaches to CAFP are surveyed. Application systems of CAFP including some recent patents are reviewed. The paper concludes with the research trend of CAFP. The global competition and customer demand change lead to greater product variety, smaller product batch size, shorter production time and higher product quality. Industrial organizations have to pursue flexibility and automation in manufacturing systems to remain competitive and profitable. Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) developed in the past decades is to meet such challenge. FMS usually consists of one or more CNC machines which are capable of machining a variety of workpieces. With the development of Computer- Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/ CAM) technology, product design and machining program- ming have been greatly computerized. However, one of the difficulties in FMS is the fixture design for locating and securing a workpiece during manufacturing operations. Fixture planning is time-consuming as it is customized for workpieces. Computer-aided fixture planning (CAFP) aims to reduce the lead-time and human interaction in fixture planning. It can verify fixture quality to integrate fixture design with CAD/CAM systems by automating the reasoning process. The integration of CAFP with CAD/CAM has greatly reduced the production lead-time and cost for an overall optimal solution in product design and manufacturing (1). Fixtures are used to locate, hold and support workpieces in manufacturing operations such as machining, inspection, and assembly. Fixture design and manufacturing is costly due to the tight tolerance and restricted machining opera- tions. Designing and fabricating fixtures can take up to 10- 20% of the total cost of a manufacturing system. Dedicated fixtures are mostly applied in mass production to gain high efficiency. For smaller batch size, the fixture flexibility becomes more important than efficiency due to the workpiece variety and machining requirements. Flexible and

Shipyard Space Allocation and Scheduling

In this paper we describe the development of a tool that allows shipyard planners to efficiently and effectively plan space within valuable areas of a shipyard. Traditionally, space is considered a resource; however, it is difficult to accurately account for and plan its consumption with the current planning software tools available. The spatial scheduling tool described in this paper can be used by planners and construction management teams to manually or semiautomatically reserve space within the shipyard for construction of large units over the entire ship erection period. The result is the ability to efficiently generate and compare multiple space allocation plans with the ultimate goal of maintaining the critical ship erection schedule. This work has been developed with Northrop Grumman Newport News (NGNN) under a project funded by an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program.

The near-net-shape manufacturing of affordable titanium components for the M777 lightweight howitzer

The U.S. Marines’ and U.S. Army’s next-generation, titanium-intensive M777 howitzer offers reduced weight, increased mobility, and improved survivability over its aging, M198 steel-based predecessor. The National Center for Excellence in Metalworking Technology (NCEMT), operated by Concurrent Technologies Corporation, is helping to meet M777 program goals for cost, performance, and production schedule by developing near-net-shape manufacturing routes for traditionally machined and welded components. Under two projects sponsored by the Navy Manufacturing Technology Program, the NCEMT has developed investment cast spade and saddle components as well as flowformed tubes and forged bell housings. This paper summarizes the results of the two ongoing projects.

Advanced solidification processing of an industrial gas turbine engine component

This paper will describe the efforts of the Advanced Turbine Airfoil Manufacturing Technology Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Howmet Research Corporation. The purpose of the program is to develop single-crystal and directionally solidified casting technologies to benefit Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS) industrial and utility gas turbine engines. The focus is on defining and implementing advanced Vacuum Induction Melting (VIM) furnace enhancements that provide precise control of mold temperatures during solidification. Emphasis was placed on increasing the total magnitude of thermal gradients while minimizing the difference in maximum and minimum gradients produced during the solidification process. Advanced VIM casting techniques were applied to Solar Turbines Incorporated’s Titan 130 First Stage High Pressure Turbine Blade under the ATS program. A comparison of the advanced VIM casting process to the conventional Bridgeman casting process will be presented as it pertains to the thermal gradients achieved during solidification, microstructure, elemental partitioning characterization, and solution heat treat response.

Work‐Based learning: Finding a new niche

AbstractThe new vocationalism has spread the concept of work‐based learning into new technical areas and to new student populations. This chapter describes how a new manufacturing technology program at one college, seeking to use work‐based learning extensively, has addressed success factors identified in a national study of exemplary programs.

The process specification system for MMST

A specification application (SPEC) was created as part of the Microelectronics Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program at Texas Instruments Incorporated. The overall goal of the MMST program was the development of the next generation wafer fabrication system by improving key areas in the fabrication of wafers, including cycle time, cost, and quality. This paper presents the key features of SPEC used to meet the MMST goals. SPEC composes process flow specifications from equipment, step, sequence, and wafer specification hierarchies. Specifications can be reused and can be machine independent. These specifications are integrated into a specification management framework that provides both revision and change notice control. SPEC integrates with other MMST applications to process wafers; including material release into the factory, material movement, machine scheduling, and direct control of equipment-all key features of a paperless factory. During the processing of a wafer, SPEC uses the latest version of a specification. SPEC played a key role in the MMST program especially during the 1000 wafer pilot production run which achieved a single wafer cycle time of less than 72 h. >

Sensor integration into plasma etch reactors of a developmental pilot line

During the course of the Microelectronics Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program, a number of sensors have been integrated into various test-bed plasma etch reactors with the goal of monitoring, diagnosing, and controlling these processes. These sensors include single wavelength and spectral ellipsometers for real-time in situ etch rate and endpoint determination; a standard monochromator for etch rate and nonuniformity measurements; an eddy current sensor for incoming metal thickness control; a rf monitor for rf current and voltage diagnostics; and a scatterometry-based critical dimension sensor for linewidth measurements. The full integration of these sensors turned out to be a complex and time-consuming task including hardware, optical, software, material, and processing issues. Once integrated into the reactor, and the appropriate process modeling completed, these sensors enabled the monitoring, diagnosis, and model-based control of these processes. Besides maintaining specific process observables at their target values, running under process control has highlighted phenomena such as equipment aging and first-wafer effects. This work has clearly shown that the full implementation of sensors into commercial manufacturing equipment is essential for the model-based control and diagnosis of semiconductor processes.

Control of MMST RTP: repeatability, uniformity, and integration for flexible manufacturing [ICs

A real-time multivariable strategy is used to control the uniformity and repeatability of wafer temperature in rapid thermal processing (RTP) semiconductor device manufacturing equipment. This strategy is based on a physical model of the process where the model parameters are estimated using an experimental design procedure. The internal model control (IMC) law design methodology is used to automatically compute the lamp powers to a multizone array of concentric heating zones to achieve wafer temperature uniformity. Control actions are made in response to real-time feedback information provided by temperature sensing, via pyrometry, at multiple points across the wafer. Several modules, including model-scheduling and antiovershoot, are coordinated with IMC to achieve temperature control specifications. The control strategy, originally developed for prototype equipment at Stanford University, is analyzed via the customization, integration, and performance on eight RTP reactors at Texas Instruments conducting thirteen different thermal fabrication operations of two sub-half-micron CMOS process technologies used in the the Microelectronics Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

MMST manufacturing technology-hardware, sensors, and processes

This paper describes the equipment and processes utilized in the Microelectronics Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program. The processes were carried out in a combination of testbeds (AVP, the TI designed and built Advanced Vacuum Processor) and commercial equipment, all in the single-wafer mode. All AVP processing was performed with the wafers in an inverted, face-down, configuration. All the processing equipment was connected to a Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) system, which both collected the designated data and communicated the process parameters from the CIM database to the particular processing unit. Where available, in situ sensors were utilized for monitoring the process parameters, with measurements made on a metrology die in the center of the wafer. Many of these processes were controlled by the model-based process control algorithms in the CIM system. Otherwise, the processes were controlled by standard statistical process control (SPC) methods. This paper emphasizes the processing methodology that was developed and followed in order to operate in this CIM environment and successfully execute an approximately 150 step 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process in less than 72 hours.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The MMST computer-integrated manufacturing system framework

Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) is the harmonious connection, integration, and interoperation of automation equipment within a manufacturing facility. In a semiconductor wafer fab, this includes integration of the processing equipment with all of the supporting systems for product and process specification, production planning and scheduling, and material handling and tracking. Traditionally, CIM systems have been characterized as monolithic mainframe-based systems and/or inflexible islands of automation with limited interoperability. Today's manufacturing demands fully integrated dynamic systems which directly support the concepts of lean, flexible and agile manufacturing to high quality standards. These requirements drove the design of a new CIM system which was developed for the Microelectronics Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program. This paper provides an overview of the MMST CIM system framework which is based on open distributed system and object technologies. The CIM system was demonstrated in a 1000 wafer pilot production run in 1993 which achieved world record cycle time, and is now being commercialized as part of the WORKS product family from Texas Instruments. >

Diagnosis of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and processes

This paper describes part of the research performed during the Microelectronic Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program on techniques for the diagnosis of equipment malfunctions and misprocessing during semiconductor manufacturing. The main motivation of this work was to investigate techniques for rapid diagnosis. Towards this goal, a number of equipment-level diagnosis techniques are described. These techniques use equipment models to diagnose equipment malfunctions at a given process step. The results obtained by applying these diagnosis approaches are very encouraging. The various approaches were able to diagnose a number of faults that were deliberately introduced to test the algorithms and the equipment faults that developed during the final demonstration of the MMST program. These techniques were applied to a TI-built Advanced Vacuum Processor (AVP) and an Applied Materials Precision reactor AMT 5000.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Rapid Thermal Processing Requirements for 0.35-µm IC Technologies and Beyond

ABSTRACTThis paper will present an overview of rapid thermal processing (RTP) technologies for fastcycle-time IC production. RTP has experienced significant advances in equipment design, process control capabilities, and unit process applications over the past eight years. The Microelectronics Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program at TI successfully demonstrated CMOS IC production in a single-wafer factory with all-RTP thermal fabrication for various anneals, oxidations, and chemical-vapor depositions. The use of RTP in conjunction with other single-wafer processes enabled 0.35 µm IC fabrication with a 3-day cycle time. Selected RTP equipment, sensor, and process control developments will be reviewed. The RTP applications and requirements for state-of-the-art and future IC technologies will be described.

Industrialization of the Spray Forming Process for Military Applications

Spray forming is a single step gas atomization/deposition process which yields ferrous and non-ferrous near net shape preforms. It has proven to be a viable, cost effective alternative to conventional metal working technology for the production of material preforms with properties surpassing those of their cast and wrought counterparts. Current Navy programs are aimed at optimization of the process, certification of the spray formed products and industrialization of the technology. This includes the development of robust, real-time sensors interfaced with an automated fuzzy logic controller and expanded motion control system. The system will have the capability to manufacture low cost, improved performance, non-symmetric components currently producible only by casting or forging. In addition commercially available spray formed piping from foreign sources is currently being evaluated and certified for near term use in the fleet. Industrialization efforts are underway to establish domestic capabilities as there are no commercial facilities in the United States to date. The Navy has just initiated a manufacturing technology program, the intent of which is to develop a commercial plant in the United States capable of producing large military components. This paper will describe the process and program status. Results and comparative data will be presented and potential new applications discussed.

U.S. Navy manufacturing technology program on ion implantation

The U.S. Navy supported a manufacturing technology program to evaluate the potential of ion implantation for industrial-scale treatment of components for wear and corrosion protection. In this paper the overall project is described, the experiments conducted to define constraints imposed by heat removal, sputtering at non-normal angles of incidence, and contamination of the surface by residual gases in the chamber atmosphere are reviewed and the manner in which these problems were solved in the MANTECH facility is illustrated. Finally an economic assessment of ion implantation under batch processing conditions will be presented.

Manufacturing technology program to develop a production ion implantation facility for processing bearings and tools

A manufacturing technology project to expedite the development and transfer of ion implantation of metals to industrial practice is described. The objective of this project is to develop a prototype production facility to implant several types of aircraft and instrument bearings, and stamping and forming tools to increase their resistance to corrosion and wear and, therefore, increase their lifetime. Research conducted in support of this project to investigate several important design issues is described including beam heating, sputtering at non-normal angles of incidence, calculation of concentration profiles and effect of residual pressure in the vacuum chamber. A major conclusion is that beam heating imposes severe constraints on the beam current density and a high throughput facility requires a diffuse beam and a batch processing mode of operation. Initial estimates of cost savings for several components are presented and are shown to be very favorable.

An introduction to the Navy Manufacturing Technology Program for Computerized Thick-Film Printing: David F. Zarnow. IEEE Trans. Components, Hybrids Mfng Technol.CHMT-3 (3), 315 (September 1980)

An introduction to the Navy Manufacturing Technology Program for Computerized Thick-Film Printing: David F. Zarnow. IEEE Trans. Components, Hybrids Mfng Technol.CHMT-3 (3), 315 (September 1980)

An Introduction to the Navy Manufacturing Technology Program for Computerized Thick-Film Printing

The objective of the Navy Manufacturing Technology Program for Computerized Thick-Film Printing is to establish advanced thick-film hybrid manufacturing capabilities that are cost effective and efficient when applied to the comparatively small quantities of thick-film hybrid microcircuits typically associated with defense avionics development and production programs. This program will establish a thick-film hybrid microcircuit manufacturing technology based on high-speed orifice writing processes, controlled by computer-aided hardware and software, for low-cost and fine-line deposition of thick-film materials onto ceramic substrates. As a result of this program, Navy microelectronic hardware acquisition costs will be reduced. Contractor production cycles will be shortened through the reduction or elimination of those costs presently associated with key labor-intensive thick-film manufacturing processes. Specifically, savings should be realized by elimination of 1) critical artwork generation procedures, 2) photolithographic preparation of stencil screens necessary for microcircuit fabrication, 3) intermediate production tooling as represented by the stencil screens, and 4) lengthy prototype-and-redesign cycles. The proposed manufacturing technology is directed toward, but not limited to, the hybrid microelectronics manufacturer who typically has modest thick-film and assembly capabilities, but has virtually no efficient in-house means to generate complex artwork. Currently, this manufacturer is constrained to the labor-intensive stencil screen preparation required for screen printing. Realization of this manufacturing technology will enhance even the smallest fabrication facility. It will provide not only a tooling-free microcircuit printing capability for prototype and limited production quantities, but a complementary microcircuit pattern design capability as well.