When choosing a supplier from a list of semiconductor equipment manufacturers you have to look at a wide variety of factors. Key points to evaluate include the following:
- Customization capabilities to meet customer requirements
- Equipment reliability
- Company experience and expertise
- Warranties
- Service and customer support
Only after you have determined which manufacturers can actually supply the equipment you want can you look at cost of ownership and pricing to make your final decision.
Specifying What You Need
Semiconductor fabrication lines and research labs are different and have specific requirements when they want to upgrade lines, replace components or buy new equipment. Sometimes the purchased equipment has to interface with existing systems, sometimes space is a factor and sometimes the physical set-up of the production facilities limit what can be installed. A supplier has to be able to evaluate these constraints and suggest solutions. The equipment proposed often has to be customized to some extent and the supplier has to have the experience and the capability to adapt his standard solutions to particular situations.
Equipment Reliability
Once you have purchased your equipment, it has to keep working with a minimum of downtime. The best way to evaluate the reliability of a supplier’s equipment is to ask for references and reliability statistics. Suppliers should submit normal hours of scheduled downtime, estimates of unexpected downtime and the records of actual installations. Once you have narrowed down the list of suppliers, it’s a good idea to check with some of the references who are not direct competitors of your company and verify what the supplier has submitted.
Warranties, Service and Support
Before you sign a contract with a selected supplier, check on his equipment warranties and his service and support capabilities. Warranties should be simple, comprehensive and of sufficient length. Check on whether the supplier has enough service personnel. Also important is whether he can rely on his own personnel to carry out service or whether he has to call in third parties. If a supplier subcontracts a lot of his equipment manufacturing, he is less likely to have competent service personnel on staff to deal with that equipment. Call support to see how they respond to support requests. Often calling a supplier’s customer support line with an equipment question rather than going through your contacts in sales will give you an idea how well a supplier responds to support requests.
Conclusion
The selection of the right semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplier for additions to a fabrication line or a research lab affects future productivity and output quality. You have to make sure you buy the equipment you need and select a supplier who will keep it working optimally.
Modutek has the experience required and the expertise to advise customers and to support their installations. The company has been in operation for over 35 years and carries out assembly of its equipment and creation of associated software in house. As a result, Modutek can offer expert service and support for all of a customer’s needs. With its commitment to total customer satisfaction and its record of in house development and manufacturing, the company is an excellent choice and a leading supplier among semiconductor equipment manufacturers. If you have any questions about Modutek’s products and support services, take a minute to call and discuss your concerns with one of their customer service representatives.