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Kevin Kaufenberg
HEIDENHAIN and Semiconductor Machine Efficiency
By Kevin Kaufenberg,
Product Manager, Electronics
Since my relatively late start in the semiconductor industry in the mid 90s, and even in this timeframe of a decade and a half, I’ve seen huge changes in this market segment with regard to production machine efficiency. Within a few short years, we all went from having large CRT monitors on our desk to one or even two or more flat panel monitors. The machines that build these flat panel monitors are so efficient as to flood the developed world with flat panels in an amazing amount of time.
The newly emerging solar market has machines that are pumping out panels at several hundred per hour and even versions that are printed almost like newspapers. Inspection tools, pick and place machines, wire bonders, dicing machines, lithography. The list goes on and on about how these various types of machines have been vastly improved over a relatively short time. One common thread in all this is the motion system that is at the core of these machines, a key part in the matrix of technologies that come together to make a machine. And in most cases within that motion system is a fast, accurate, high quality, long lasting HEIDENHAIN encoder.
Since speeds are being pushed to the maximum in this industry, HEIDENHAIN’s R&D department is responding. With new ultra-low noise electronics that are approaching the quantum mechanical limits and higher power reliable light sources that are incorporated into encoders (such as in our LIP 200 series), HEIDENHAIN is ready to take on and overcome the industry demands of faster speeds. And now with the ENDAT 2.2 interface for our new LIC 4000 absolute kit style long length linear encoder system, we can provide digital absolute position at the same speeds as the fastest analogs could do just a few years ago.
Our dependence on efficient machines will only grow in the future. This phenomenon is spreading to other markets, like medically based machines for example, which can only have a positive effect on human health. Economic downturn or not, innovation will allow machine efficiency to improve and HEIDENHAIN will continue to innovate regardless of market conditions, ensuring that encoder technology will not be a stumbling block on the road to progress.
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