The First and Fastest Automated Fab

The industry’s first, and arguably still the fastest, automated integrated circuit fabricator was operational at IBM in East Fishkill, NY, in 1974. It demonstrates the highest possible level of automated sequential process integration in a wafer fab. It took less than one day to create IBM RAM-II chip circuits on blank wafers. The fast turnaround time was achieved with a system architecture that is unique even today. All operations required to process a wafer between one photoresist pattern exposure and the next were integrated into a single automobile-sized automated machine called a “sector”. The fabricator consisted of a pattern exposure station, five automated wafer processing sectors, a monorail single-wafer “taxi” connecting them, and a computer-based production control and monitoring system. This paper describes the processing equipment and achievements of this little-known pioneering demonstration of wafer processing automation. It was initiated and managed by William E. Harding to demonstrate the practicality and advantages of full automation, single-wafer processing, fast turn-around time and continuous operation for integrated circuit manufacturing. Harding’s groundbreaking automated wafer processor produced RAM-II circuits at a good yield in 20 hours turnaround time, averaging 5 hours per layer.