Small has never been bigger." Semiconductors in phones, computers, and cars are shrinking, integrating more transistors. Future applications like AI, VR, and 6G demand smaller, faster, and more efficient chips.

Bridging the Gap: Accelerating Nanoelectronics from Lab to Production

In the race to develop smaller and more powerful nanoelectronics, the transition from research to production must be as seamless as possible.

One of the world's leading independent research centers in nanoelectronics and digital technology, based in the Benelux region, is experiencing surging demand. Part academic research hub, part test lab for pioneering manufacturing techniques, and part small-scale semiconductor production facility, it has it all.

Now, in a drive for greater efficiency, the center has launched a new initiative to streamline its OT and IT using Industry 4.0 principles. This effort is complemented by a significant investment in a cutting-edge pilot line, expanding its technical infrastructure to push innovation further—going beyond-2nm system-on-chip technologies. .

Driving Industry 4.0: How Akkodis is Powering the Future of Nanoelectronics

The research center has chosen Akkodis as one of a select few technical consultants for the project, leveraging Akkodis’ expertise in automation, Industry 4.0, big data platforms, and data management in the years ahead.

Despite operating at one of the smallest scales imaginable in industrial manufacturing, the research centre faces challenges like to those encountered by many companies on their Industry 4.0 journey.

Enhancing efficiency through automation and real-time manufacturing data integration requires connecting production equipment to a robust digital infrastructure. This infrastructure must not only be established but also ensure that the data it holds is processed and structured to be accessible for both human analysis and machine learning algorithms.

"Enhancing efficiency through automation and real-time manufacturing data integration requires connecting production equipment to a robust digital infrastructure."

New data platforms are critical for streamlining manual tasks, accelerating research access, and unlocking the full potential of automation.

At the core of this transformation lies a deceptively simple yet technically complex challenge: synchronizing all machines to the same precise time.

Akkodis experts are tackling this by implementing a synchronization protocol, ensuring that the factory’s 200+ machines align within an accuracy of 50 milliseconds—laying the groundwork for optimized production and data-driven innovation.

Precision in Nanoelectronics: Synchronizing Cleanroom Technology for Peak Performance

The research center spans 12,000 m² of cutting-edge cleanrooms and advanced laboratories, housing billions of dollars’ worth of complex machinery.

During production, silicon wafers move through multiple machines, each embedding hundreds of CPU chips packed with billions of transistors and intricate layers of microscopic wiring. Manufacturing a semiconductor is akin to constructing an entire city and complete with buildings, roads, and bridges at a nanometer scale. At the end of this highly intricate process, an integrated circuit is born.

However, for seamless production, machine alignment is critical.

“Currently, the internal clocks of the different tools in the cleanrooms are not synchronized”, says Peter Bradley, software architect, Akkodis Netherlands.

“This results in manipulations on the data generated by these tools. We must ensure timestamps are aligned when we merge datasets from different tools,” he says.

“Therefore, we’re now working on a “cleanroom clock sync” project to connect all cleanroom tools to a central Network Time Protocol solution”.

NTP, one of the longest-standing internet protocols in use today, operates on a client-server model to synchronize clocks across multiple systems by establishing a hierarchy of time sources. At the top of this hierarchy sits a reference clock, typically an atomic clock.

“NTP is often used with machinery that needs to process something in sync. That is not the case here,” Bradley says. “Here we use it to make sure the data coming from the machines is consistently timestamped. That makes it much easier to collect and exploit the data, both to automate processes and for research purposes”.

Unlocking the Power of Data: How Akkodis is Driving AI-Ready Semiconductor Innovation

Vital as they are, it is not just about the correct timestamps. Akkodis aims to play a much larger role in the OT and IT streamlining initiative. Ensuring that data is efficiently stored and easily accessible—for both human researchers and AI-driven algorithms—is equally critical. This is where Stefan Portev, software architect at Akkodis Bulgaria, brings his cross-industry expertise to the world of semiconductors.

“We have extensive experience in building platforms for big data. For instance, we’ve built a fleet management platform, analyzing data from hundreds of thousands of trucks, presenting the data in a user-friendly way. This allows people to create detailed reports about each truck and its trailer, its movements, when it was loaded and unloaded etc.”

Effectively collecting, structuring, and storing data is essential—not just for accessibility but also for enabling machine learning algorithms to analyze patterns, detect anomalies, and identify potential issues early, Portev explains.

“We can contribute significantly to the Industry 4.0 journey of the research center and we are looking forward to exploiting the opportunities in this cutting-edge project,” Portev says. “It is a big thing to be part of something that small.”

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