AIXTRON Automates Latest Polymer Deposition Technology Equipment With PEER Group's Advanced Automation Software

Advanced materials market demands fast, flexible equipment design and configuration

Kitchener, ON, Canada (PRWEB) - AIXTRON SE is a leading provider of deposition equipment to a diverse range of customers worldwide for electronic and opto-electronic applications (photonic) based on compound, silicon, or organic semiconductor materials. AIXTRON recently introduced its new PRODOS Gen3.5, a Polymer Vapor Phase Deposition (PVPD) tool platform for the manufacturing of flexible electronic devices through the deposition of organic polymer thin films for substrate sizes up to Gen3.5 (650x750mm²). The PRODOS line of systems is a modular, expandable platform designed to accommodate the wide variety of applications in the fast-moving organic electronics market.

"In the advanced materials markets processing technology is constantly changing so the requirement for fast, flexible equipment design and configuration has never been greater," said Juergen Kreis, Director of Business Development responsible for AIXTRON's Organic Semiconductor business. "PEER Group's PTO™ provides us an advanced software platform that meets these requirements along with the stability and reliability that our customers demand in a production-ready tool."

The first PRODOS Gen3.5 tool was shipped in August 2012, meeting an aggressive development schedule. "PTO's modular architecture and advanced tool design engine adapted quickly and easily to equipment design changes during the project. The inherent agility of the PTO solution kept us on track to meet our customer’s delivery time without having to compromise the quality of our solution," added Mr. Kreis.

Equipment Innovation
"We have been impressed by the new features in PTO 5, which meets most of our requirements for PRODOS Gen3.5. This is what drove us to partner with PEER Group on this project," says Karl-Heinz Buechel, AIXTRON's program manager for corporate control systems.

Mike Thiessen, PTO product manager, leverages PEER Group's R&D initiatives and comments, "Through innovative use of the latest Microsoft technologies, and our many years of experience in developing automation solutions, we're able to help our OEM customers to be more productive by giving them the best of both worlds: configurable software products that ease the integration of custom software and enabling them to add unique value and competitive differentiation to their equipment."

Rapidly Adapting Software with Changing Equipment
PTO’s architecture ensures that with ongoing equipment evolution, changes can be made easily and reliably. PEER Tool Composer (PTC™), PTO’s tool designer, automatically keeps the tool’s control components (scheduling, device drivers, etc.) in sync with a common equipment data model that simplifies access to equipment information for data consumers such as SECS/GEM hosts, Interface A clients, analysis engines, and user interfaces.

"The PTC gives our engineers complete flexibility to make time-critical changes quickly and reliably, without the need to involve PEER Group’s engineering team. This independence is unique in the automation software market and another example of how PEER Group has set the standard with their latest product offerings," adds Mr. Buechel.

About AIXTRON SE
AIXTRON SE is a leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. Headquartered in Herzogenrath, Germany, the Company's technology solutions are used by a diverse range of customers worldwide. For more information about AIXTRON SE, please visit http://www.aixtron.com.

About PEER Group
The PEER Group, Inc. provides innovative factory automation software solutions and consulting services to the semiconductor, photovoltaic, LED and other high technology industries. The world’s best manufacturing companies turn to PEER Group to solve their most challenging equipment automation, data management, and process control problems. With more than 100,000 licenses shipped, PEER Group is the leading supplier of equipment connectivity and testing products to automated factories around the world. Their innovative and reliable products and services help lower the cost of automation for high-volume manufacturers and their equipment suppliers. Learn more at http://www.peergroup.com.