2020.01.02 【Taiwan Research Highlight 12月號】iFA for Industry 4.1

The current Industry 4.0 related technologies emphasize productivity improvement but not quality enhancement; in other words, they can only keep the faith of achieving nearly Zero Defects (ZD) state without realizing this goal. The key reason for this inability is the lack of an affordable online and real-time TOTAL-INSPECTION technology. By adopting the developed Automatic Virtual Metrology (AVM), ZD can be achieved as AVM can provide the TOTAL INSPECTION data of all products online and in real time. Further, the developed Intelligent Yield Management (IYM) can be utilized to identify the root causes of the defects for continuous improvement of those defective products; as such, nearly ZD of all products can be achieved.

The novel Intelligent Factory Automation (iFA) System Platform was developed by integrating technologies such as Cyber-Physical Agent (CPA), Advanced Manufacturing Cloud of Things (AMCoT), Automatic Virtual Metrology (AVM), Intelligent Predictive Maintenance (IPM), and Intelligent Yield Management (IYM), etc., so as to provide a total-solution package for implementing Intelligent Manufacturing. The iFA System serves as a game changer for both high-tech (e.g., semiconductor, flat panel display, solar cell, etc.) and traditional (e.g., machine tool, aerospace, carbon fiber, etc.) industries to upgrade Industry 4.0 to Industry 4.1 in pursuit of increasing productivity as well as realizing the goal of ZD of all products.