Aquest Systems, which is developing innovative automation solutions, today announced it has received an order valued at more than two million dollars from Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation [Taiwan OTC: PSC]. Based in Taiwan, PSC is a world leader in the manufacture of semiconductor memory products. The milestone order is for Aquest's new FabEX(TM) automated material handling system (AMHS), which is designed to improve IC fab manufacturing productivity by delivering both high speed
and high capacity advances over conventional vehicle-based AMHS. Company officials report that FabEX is slated for installation this month at two of PSC's 300-mm fabs-12A and 12B.
According to Dr. Mihir Parikh, president & CEO of Aquest, "During a six-month period of collaborative work with the PSC team, we optimized FabEX to provide PSC with high capacity and the short delivery times needed to meet their manufacturing requirements. We are optimistic that this first step will demonstrate FabEX's capability to provide a fully integrated fab-wide AMHS solution to fulfill Aquest's vision of No-Wait-Manufacturing(SM)."
Commenting on the order, Aquest's Taiwan General Manager Bruce Liao noted, "Aquest's FabEX is of interest to many IC manufacturers, both here in Taiwan and around the world. Many of these chipmakers are looking to upgrade their already installed vehicle-based AMHS systems with FabEX to significantly improve productivity for both inter-fab and intra-fab applications. Since Aquest's business model is built around Taiwan, our organization is ideally suited to initially provide comprehensive engineering and applications support to a growing Taiwanese customer-base."
FabEX was designed to be readily assimilated into operating fabs with software and hardware interfaces all based on industry standards. As such, the integration of F