Silicon and the Economy

The semiconductor industry is the largest economic segment of the US economy. We still dominate in a few areas. Semiconductor equipment, hard disk drives, computers as finished products, laser printers and inkjets are some of the product areas where American companies continue to dominate. And a lot of the innovation that drives technology originates in the US. Read more

Silicon, the Final Frontier (2)

When you consider the technical issues of making semiconductors, it seems impossibly difficult. Semiconductor fabrication requires lithographic processes to create features that are measured fractions of an Angstrom, the unit of measure of wavelengths of light. Pretty small. The least contamination or vibration that isn’t supposed to be there can ruin parts.

Wafer polishing machines must polish the slices of silicon to a flatness and perfection that can’t be measured by conventional means. Multi-axis robots handle silicon wafers in vacuum chambers without putting the tiniest scratch on the surface. Wafer cassettes with $250 to $500K worth of uncut chips have to be shuttled from process machine to process machine inspected and tested for defects. Read more

Silicon, the Final Frontier

It used to be said that what’s good for Detroit is good for America.  This idiom referred to the dominant role of the automotive manufacturing in the American economy.  During the boom of the 1950’s and 60’s many controls companies grew into their current positions as dominant controls suppliers by developing ever more powerful solutions for automating the auto makers.

It is somewhat ironic that as we move into the e-tainment era of the 2010’s, surrounded by e-media delivered by ever more powerful portable electronics, that the US semiconductor industry is at least the size of, and by some accounts, a much larger enterprise than the auto industry.   The Department of Commerce shows semiconductor manufacturing at $90B for 2002 and computer manufacturing at about $88B, some of which of course is overlapping.  If you start adding all the flat screen display, cellphones, well, you get the picture.  Semiconductors enable so many products that we take for granted, it is hard to estimate the impact. Read more

On-Wafer Evaluation of MEMS Devices

Testing at Earliest Stages in Development Can Help Lower Costs of Microelectromechnaical Systems.

By Mitsuhiro Nakamura
Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Recently, various devices using MEMS technology such as pressure sensors, accelerometers, and RF MEMS have been commercialized. Additionally, new devices such as silicon microphones, are rapidly evolving. The MEMS market started with the automotive industry and has been expanding to consumer products such as cellular phones.

This MEMS market expansion also applies pressure on manufacturers to lower their costs per device. However there are few opportunities for cost reduction. The limiting factors include:

• Low yields due to the precision process
• Slow throughput due to application of the physical stimulus.

A recent study (item 1 in the Appendix) estimates that 80% of the total production cost is attributed to the device packaging process and how defective chip inflow to the packaging process can contribute to cost increases. Therefore, we will discuss how to evaluate MEMS elements at the on-wafer stage in order to lower the total production cost.

Read more

Control Considerations in Mechatronics

PAC hardware can be used in multiple domains, including logic, motion, drives, and process control. And the software programs all control and monitoring tasks of multiple domains. This feature enables the programs to “flow” as the requirements of the application dictate.

Critical to any mechatronics system is the control. One of the newest controllers is the programmable automation controller. Here are tips on selecting one for your specific application.

By Kelly Downey,
Electrical Engineer
Opto 22

Industrial applications continue to increase in complexity, requiring controls that can integrate multiple systems that incorporate discrete, motion control, and process tasks and that can gather, process, and transmit real time data to company databases. Programmable automation controllers (PACs) can be one choice for managing this complexity because they combine the capabilities of several traditional control and monitoring systems. Typically, they have features found in programmable logic controllers (PLCs), distributed control systems (DCSs),remote terminal units (RTUs), and personal computers (PCs).
Even so, control manufacturers offer PACs with varying capabilities. Thus, there are several considerations to keep in mind with your selection. Read more

Mechatronic Resources

Engineering Courses

• Mechatronics course offered at [Colorado State University]
• Mechatronics course offered at [University of Wisconsin - Madison]
• Alciatore, D. and Histand, M., ["Integrating Mechatronics Into a Mechanical Engineering Curriculum"]

Books

• Engineering Books Online

• “Introduction to Mechatronics and Measurement Systems” by David G. Alciatore and Michael B. Histand. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University textbook, with online educational resources.

Video

• Engineering Watch

Facts or Fiction? Politics or Science.

I recently picked up my monthly copy of one of the pre-eminent magazines in the sciences that I have subscribed to for many years. This month’s cover article was on American energy policy. OK, fine. We are all concerned about the rising prices at the pump and impact (mostly negative) on our economy.

But it freaked me out when I tried to read the article. The entire thing was an editorial based on reader responses to a survey sent out by the magazine. No facts, no science, no specific issue really, not even any survey demographics, no factual support for several pages of random assertions about what different factions in the government are doing wrong and the havoc being wreaked in our economy.

I admit, I got a little irate. Read more