FabTime Newsletter Community Announcements Page
The FabTime newsletter shares announcements of interest to the wafer fab operations community.
The announcements below are from the FabTime Cycle Time Newsletter, Volume 26, No. 4, published on September 9, 2025. We have highlights from the Q3 Fab Owners Alliance meeting and exciting news about automatic chart creation from natural language queries in FabTime.
Past issues of the newsletter are available for subscribers to download in PDF format. Existing subscribers can find the archive link in your most recent email newsletter. New subscribers will see the link upon registering.
- Register for the newsletter here.
- Main article for Volume 26, No. 4: Fab Trade-Offs: Higher Cycle Time for Lower Cost
- Subscriber discussion forum for Volume 26, No. 4
- Reach out to newsletter editor Jennifer Robinson here.
Highlights of the Q3 FOA Meeting
The Q3 SEMI Fab Owners Alliance meeting was held at Analog Devices in Beaverton, OR on July 29-30. There were 175 attendees from around the world, a mix of device makers and suppliers (plus the fabulous SEMI FOA organizing team).
Jennifer Robinson and Birender Kahlon represented INFICON at the meeting. Jennifer is on the advisory council for the Women of the FOA (WFOA) and is also a member of the Supplier Partner Advisory Council (SPAC).
The WFOA held a breakfast meeting with more than 30 attendees, representing SEMI’s progress in encouraging more women to attend this event. Jennifer led a session on recruiting and retaining female employees in the semiconductor industry. This was followed by a panel discussion with networking tips, and a getting-to-know-you bingo event. Shown in the photo below, left to right: Christie Baker (SEMI), Jeannie Jesson (WGNSTAR), Jennifer Robinson, Vrunda Bhagwat (camLine) and Raschell Hickmott (FABMATICS USA).
With other SPAC members, Jennifer also presented ideas for improving support and communication between FOA suppliers and device makers in the closed session for device makers. A meeting for suppliers was held in parallel with the device maker meeting, with many good ideas shared for future FOA improvements.
The next FOA meeting (device maker meeting and speed networking event) will be held at SEMICON West, in Phoenix, AZ on October 9th. INFICON will be an exhibitor at SEMICON. Look for John Behnke, our Smart Manufacturing GM, and other team members.
Shown below: the full group of attendees at the WFOA meeting.
Natural Language Chart Creation in FabTime
In previous newsletters, we introduced AskJen™, our AI-powered chat engine based on content from this newsletter. Our newest chat-driven innovation is the ability to use natural language queries to generate FabTime charts. For example:
- Show me yesterday’s fab moves by hour.
- Do I have any P1 lots on hold?
- Which tools are currently in standby-WIP-waiting?
- Show me the average cycle time per visit by tool group over the past two days for P2 lots.
- And much more…
The Chart Assistant shows an overview of what chart it will use to satisfy the request, then generates the chart, already filtered as requested.
This feature is in early stages, but we believe that it’s going to be incredibly useful. Reach out to Jennifer for more information or to see a demonstration.
For more reading from the FabTime newsletter, see:
- Main article for Volume 26, No. 4: Fab Trade-Offs: Higher Cycle Time for Lower Cost
- Subscriber discussion forum for Volume 26, No. 4
Want to learn more about cycle time drivers in your fab?
