of the signature of Peter B. Luh."/>
Peter B. Luh
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
SNET Professor of Communications & Information Technologies
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Connecticut
Since Germany brought up Industry 4.0 in 2012, the trend of Intelligent Manufacturing has boomed globally. By integrating the innovative information‐and‐communication technologies such as IoT, Cloud, Big Data, AI, etc., various Cyber‐Physical Systems are developed to promote factory process optimization, yield improvement, efficiency enhancement, and cost reduction. Besides, in response to changes in consumers' habits, Zero Defects, High Variety Low Volume, and Rapid Change have become mandatory indicators for Intelligent Manufacturing.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), is the leading provider of independent semiconductor manufacturing services in assembly and test. ASE develops and offers complete turnkey solutions in IC packaging, design and production of interconnect materials, front‐end engineering test, wafer probing, and final test. In 2011, ASE started to vigorously promote Intelligent Manufacturing and established over 15 lights‐out factories in response to changes in the global industrial environment. Moreover, ASE also collaborated with various top universities in Taiwan, ROC for R&D of IoT, Cloud, Big Data, and AI technologies, which have cultivated more than 400 professionals in the automation field via co‐hosting educational trainings and industry programs to improve the automation capability within ASE.
ASE began the industry‐university collaboration with Prof. Fan‐Tien Cheng in 2014. Initially, we implemented Automatic Virtual Metrology (AVM) to achieve total inspection in an efficient and economic way so as to reduce the measurement cost. The project was a great success, and ever since then Prof. Cheng has become one of our major collaborators. The subsequent cooperation includes Intelligent Yield Management (IYM), Intelligent Predictive Maintenance (IPM), Advanced Manufacturing Cloud of Things (AMCoT), and Scheduling, which can be said to be the practical applications of all the research essence of Prof. Cheng on the production line.
The Industry 4.1 proposed by Prof. Cheng aims at Zero Defects, it applies AVM to accomplish total inspection and utilizes IYM to find the root causes of a yield loss. In addition to enhancing production efficiency, it also improves product yield and makes products close to Zero Defects, which is a great step forward in the realm of Industry 4.0.
Although Intelligent Manufacturing is a hot subject nowadays, it is challenging for the enterprises to actually carry it out; many enterprises still struggle to realize the vision of Intelligent Manufacturing. The implementation of novel technologies isn’t the only core for Intelligent Manufacturing, the shaping of the ecological chain of the automation industry and the cultivation of talents are also important factors.
As the development of hardware like sensor, microcontroller, Automatic Material Handling System (AMHS), and robot is coming to a mature state gradually, the focus of Intelligent Manufacturing has shifted to the software. The cloud‐based technologies such as Big Data and AI application modules draw more attention to the researchers and professionals at present. The technologies introduced in this book are a series of automation technologies developed upon IoT, Cloud, Big Data, and AI. Aside from explaining through the theories in detail, it also includes hands‐on application cases in various industries. This is a book worth reading for both industrial professionals and scholars, and I highly recommend these materials for Intelligent Manufacturing education.
Michael Lee
Vice GM of ASEKH MIS Center
Former Plant Manager of ASE Testing and Wafer Bumping Plants
Former Executive Secretary of ASE Security Committee
Former Committee Member of ASE Automation Committee
By the time we established the Precision Machinery Research & Development Center (PMC) in 1993, the board of directors agreed to my suggestion of focusing our efforts on two fields of expertise, IT and total quality control, to speed up our competitiveness on machine tools made in Taiwan, ROC.
Back then, we were totally unaware that IT could even be developed outside our expertise realm to missions such as Apollo 13 by NASA through digital twins.
However, we began to appreciate our choice of focusing on IT when the U.S. National Science Foundation announced the development of Cyber‐Physical Systems in 2006. I am glad to report that PMC was the first organization in Taiwan, ROC to join the IMS Center founded by Prof. Jay Lee while he was a professor at the University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee before he moved to Cincinnati. Our affiliation with the IMS center guided us to recognize the worth of Industry 4.0 initiated by Germany later in 2013.
In the meantime, virtual metrology (VM) has emerged as a key tool for controlling complex process such as semiconductor device manufacturing. VM utilizes mathematical models to estimate quality variables that may be difficult or expensive to measure using readily available process information.
Professor Fan‐Tien Cheng, the Editor and leading author of this book, realized that if VM can be fully automated, the quality of a process can be monitored without processing interruption. His team applied their Automatic Virtual Metrology (AVM) to the chemical vapor deposition for a thin film transistor liquid display manufacturing process in Taiwan, ROC. Since AVM allows the possibility of acquiring Zero‐Defects production, he claimed that AVM should be coined into Industry 4.1, i.e., one step ahead of the original Industry 4.0.
In 2013, his team began to expand AVM into the semiconductor packaging process in cooperation with the ASE group. The success of AVM implementation was then followed by the integration of Intelligent Predictive Maintenance (IPM) and Intelligent Yield Management (IYM) into their production lines through the Intelligent Factory Automation (iFA) platform Professor Cheng developed.
In the meantime, the iFA platform was applied to the machining of aluminum alloy wheels at FEMCO Machine Tool Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Chiayi, Taiwan, ROC. Their success has helped FEMCO to export numerous similar systems to worldwide automobile wheel manufactures. In addition to the semiconductor and automotive industries, his team has deployed these systems constituting Industry 4.1 to many other manufacturing enterprises such as TFT‐LCD, solar cell, jet engine case machining, plastic bottle blow molding, machine tools, 3D metal printing, and thermal process for making carbon fibers.
Professor Cheng and his team aim to upgrade the manufacturing industries to achieve Zero Defects through the implementation of Industry 4.1. This book is the embodiment of their dedication on the advanced technologies that pave the way from Industry 4.0 to Industry 4.1. I highly recommend this practical book to those who are interested in or preparing themselves to take parts in the manufacturing industries, they can see a whole picture of the industry evolvement with actual on‐site application cases.
Kuo‐Chin Chuang
Ph.D. of Materials Sci. and Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Honorary Chairman, Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI)
Former Chairman, Far East Machinery Co, Ltd. (FEMCO)
Chairman, LOGICOM, Inc.