Picosun launches PicoOS™, a unified control software for PICOSUN® ALD modules and clusters

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ESPOO, Finland, 2nd December 2020 – Picosun Group, leading provider of AGILE ALD® (Atomic Layer Deposition) thin film coating solutions for industrial manufacturing, presents PicoOS™, the new, full stack operating system and process control software for PICOSUN® ALD equipment.

“PicoOS™ brings PICOSUN® ALD equipment control to the modern era. It is designed for wafer fabs and industrial environments where transition to Industry 4.0 is ongoing. Data-driven PicoOS™ enables future production solutions where machine learning, artificial intelligence, internet-of-things, and other new digital inventions are utilized for optimum industrial efficiency,” says Dr. Jani Kivioja, CTO of Picosun Group.

Picosun’s proprietary PicoOS™ software combines individual ALD module, wafer handling and transfer system, and instrumentation control under one common graphical HMI (human-machine interface). This ensures easy, intuitive and user-friendly operation, maintenance, and configuration of the whole PICOSUN® ALD cluster.

PicoOS™ enables full factory integration via SECS/GEM protocol, process and system data logging down to 20 ms rate, and real-time export of all data for continuous monitoring and further analysis.

PicoOS™ operating system is specifically developed by Picosun’s own in-house software team for the company’s fully automated production ALD systems Morpher and Sprinter, and it will be implemented in all future PICOSUN® ALD tool platforms.

“PicoOS™ is designed to ensure the highest control precision and accuracy, the fastest service times, and the best user experience for our customers. Having in-house control over all features and sub-components of our PICOSUN® ALD solutions is a key part of our holistic service model,” continues Kivioja.

PicoOS™ has freely configurable and scalable editor for ALD process recipe and processing job creation and storage, and recipes can be edited or new ones created any time during the ALD system operation. Configurable user levels and safety logic, instrumentation and interlocks guarantee safe use in day-to-day operations, and allow full access for tool management in maintenance situations. Maintenance procedures are sped up by specific clean-up and maintenance sequences inbuilt in the software.