Welcome and FPS Introduction

John Behnke – General Manager, INFICON, Austin TX

Dear Reader,

We would like to welcome you to the first issue of FPS Smart News, INFICON's bi-annual newsletter for the FPS product line. In it you'll find technical information, helpful hints and tips, news, and events.

As you know manufacturing of all kinds is undergoing a digital transformation often referred to as Smart Manufacturing or Industry 4.0.  A Smart factory is built upon a Digital Twin that emulates a factory in extreme detail.  The FPS Datawarehouse is one of the most comprehensive Digital Twins available in the Semi Industry.  This Digital Twin can provide several new high ROI capabilities including a real-time view of the factory's performance and issues, factory-wide optimization via Scheduling and material movement optimization via NextMove.  FDC and eOCAP tool centric data can also be integrated with a Digital Twin to enable more comprehensive decisions throughout the factory.  This introductory edition will provide a high-level overview of some of these applications. 

INFICON, under the FPS brand, is developing several next generation products that leverage the power of a Digital Twin.  We are very excited about a new application: Metrology Sampling Optimizer, which was voted the most desired new capability at last summer's User-Group Meeting.  It will change the way fabs manage metrology and a preview is included in this edition.

We are providing this newsletter to keep you informed of advances in Smart Manufacturing and welcome your comments and suggestions for future content.

Best Regards,

John R. Behnke

For more information, visit INFICON Final Phase Systems.