RFID-based Wireless Sensor Network for Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment to enable Predictive Maintenance

The goal of this work was to implement a wireless RFID-based Sensor Network in the UHF frequency region inside a semiconductor cleaning machine to supplement existing sensors in order to simplify usability and reduce production costs. The sensors are chosen in a way to extract useful information about the status of the semiconductor production machine to invoke specific system maintenance, thereby reducing maintenance times and costs. The great challenges are to obtain passive UHF receiver tags and sensors that reliably have to be detected among hundreds of other sensors in an electromagnetically complex and chemically harsh environment using innovative packaging and novel integration technologies.