STMicroelectronics expects automation to raise efficiency at legacy fabs. At the same time, it plans to retrain workers for more specialized roles. In fact, STMicroelectronics's first humanoid robot designed for fab operations was demonstrated by head of manufacturing Thomas Morgenstern. To add context, the company announced plans to fire some 5,000 workers back in 2024.
In a video shown at the event, a robot was seen loading a silicon wafer carrier into one of the machines involved in a silicon wafer production flow. However, while a humanoid robot loading a wafer is certainly very cinematic, this kind of automation is dramatically below what happens in Class 1 – Class 3 cleanrooms in Arizona, Korea, Texas, and Taiwan, where humans are barely present at all. However, the fabs run by Intel, Samsung, and TSMC were designed this way. What STMicro does is introduce robots to fabs designed decades ago.
You may like Chinese fabs are reportedly upgrading older ASML DUV lithography chipmaking machines Robotics and world models are AI's next frontier, and China is already ahead of the West Despite AI chip boom and record high stock price, ASML to lay off employees According to Morgenstern, this initial robot is only the starting point: over the next few years, STMicroelectronics anticipates deploying more than 100 humanoid robots across its manufacturing facilities. These systems are intended to perform routine and physically demanding activities typically carried out in chip plants, including handling wafers and interacting with processing tools. In modern fabs, this is done by specialized equipment designed to hold, transport, and protect semiconductor wafers, usually in FOUPs (front opening unified pods).
Then again, the initiative targets older semiconductor fabrication plants that are barely competitive against newly built fabs in China in terms of costs, as the latest fabs in the PRC are highly automated. At the same time, they cannot accommodate the latest manufacturing tools to get on par with peers in China. Tearing down such facilities and constructing new ones is also problematic due to high costs, complex regulatory requirements, and negotiations with labor unions in Europe. As a result, automation has turned out to be a practical way to improve productivity without undertaking large-scale rebuilding projects.
Given the current semiconductor industry reality — government subsidized highly-automated fabs in China, highly-competitive fabs in Taiwan, the ongoing onshoring in the U.S. that favors the likes of Texas Instruments, and the growing demand from the defense sector — improving operational efficiency at existing fabs seems to be becoming a strategic priority for European chipmakers. At the end of the day, they can serve demand from both emerging and established players across a variety of industries.
Financial incentives also play a role in shaping these decisions, though. Many older facilities are not eligible for subsidies under the European Chips Act because the plan primarily supports 'first-of-a-kind' projects rather than the modernization of existing production lines.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/stmicro-to-deploy-humanoid-robots-to-its-legacy-fabs-in-europe-over-100-humanoid-robots-to-be-used-for-routine-and-physically-demanding-tasks-in-fight-for-efficiency#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
- Flabbergasted GPU repair wizard highlights dangers of liquid metal after leak kills entire RTX 5070 Ti — user-applied TIM spread to every crevice of the PCB, ph
- ‘Clean-room reimplementation’ of DR-DOS hits early beta, modernizing the operating system 38 years after its debut — runs Doom, Warcraft, SimCity, and other per
- The ongoing Strait of Hormuz blockage will impact the semiconductor and AI industries with Aluminum, Helium and LNG shortages — and with no timeline for re-open
- NVIDIA Virtualizes Game Development With RTX PRO Server
- Fiber internet provider says it can detect leaking water pipes using existing infrastructure, prevented loss of 2 million liters a day over three months — Light
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.