By Stephen Nellis
FREMONT, California, May 21 (Reuters) - Lam Research is focused on adding sensing and AI capabilities to its semiconductor manufacturing tools to make them more productive as it plans
expanded operations in Arizona and California, its chief executive told Reuters on Thursday.
Shares of Lam, which supplies chipmakers such as Micron Technology and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, have risen more than 75% this year as huge demand for AI chips has spurred customers to buy more tools.
Lam CEO Tim Archer said in an interview that the company's strategic focus over the next two years would be to equip those tools with more sensors that generate data that can be analyzed by AI systems to spot problems and inefficiencies early. That would help its customers make more chips with fewer defects on each wafer, the dinner-plate-sized silicon disks that raw chips are printed on.
Archer made the comments as Lam held a venture capital competition at its Fremont, California, headquarters where it awarded a $250,000 investment to a startup called Lightfinder.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinout has shrunk down a key standalone tool for measuring chips to a size and cost so the tool can be merged into an existing machine rather than requiring a separate step in the chipmaking process.
"The more data you collect from the machine itself, or from the wafer, the better your models can be about predicting what's happening and starting to really react to problems in the system," Archer said. "What AI is allowing us to do ... is basically identify conditions in the system that we didn't know were a problem before."
Archer also confirmed that Lam intends to open an additional facility in the Phoenix area to support customers such as TSMC and that it plans more investments at its California headquarters, where it still carries out manufacturing work.
The Phoenix Business Journal in December reported that Lam spent more than $45 million on a 148,000-square-foot (13,750-square-meter) building near TSMC's massive factories there, but Lam has not yet detailed its plans for the facility.
"Clearly, we see Arizona as a place that we need to be from the standpoint of supporting (customers)," Archer said. "I think you'll very soon see more investment coming here in the Fremont area."
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in Fremont, California; Editing by Jamie Freed)
