Abstract—Semiconductor manufacturing is one of the most automated industries, due to the return on investment on wafer processing yield and manufacturing throughput. Even with these automation trends the manufacturing equipment maintenance and infrastructure sustainment has been heavily reliant on human support due to the equipment design and equipment spacing in the manufacturing environment. To achieve global forecasted semiconductor usage new approaches to equipment maintenance automation will need to be implemented.
To implement next level automation for semiconductor manufacturing there is a need to understand the current and future constraints for semiconductor manufacturing. These factors include cost, mechanical workspace, and automation task teaching. This paper will explore the cost factors, workspace and environment and the scalable implementation constraints that the author analyzes to constrain the final automation form factor as humanoid. The primary constraint is cost for semiconductor fab construction. This (Boston Consulting Group Analysis) is to rise between 33 and 66% percent by 2026. Another constraint is lower node sizes [2] require more manufacturing capacity due to longer processing times [3]. These two converging factors are pushing manufactures to maximize wafer manufacturing density to reach optimal capacity needs.