Abstract
Domestic Industrial Robotics Companies Need to Revise Pricing Strategies to Stave off
Challenge from Low-cost Countries
Manufacturers of flat display panels, electronic devices, and semiconductors from regions such as
the Asia Pacific -- which has low-cost resources -- have a huge market in North America due to their
cost-competitive products. This places enormous pressure on domestic manufacturers to revise their
production strategies so that their products cost less. Since robotics requires huge capital,
manufacturers seek less expensive semi-automation solutions, which however, do not provide the
flexibility of robotics. The sector that has been worst affected by these pricing pressures from
overseas competitors is the semiconductors industry. As end-user awareness of the advantages of
robotics increases, there is likely to be a corresponding rise in the adoption rates of cleanroom
robots.
This Frost & Sullivan research service provides an overview of the North American industrial
robotics market for cleanroom applications. The study has been divided into four segments based on
end-user applications of robotics: flat display panel handling, electronic storage media,
semiconductors industry, and medical and pharmaceuticals. The research enables companies to align
their positioning strategies to benefit from the changing markets and obtain maximum return on
investment.
Clinical Sterility Requirements Drive Adoption of Robotics in Medical and Pharmaceutical
Applications
Medical and pharmaceutical markets have been extensively using robotics for applications such as
material handling, transfer of objects, and accurate performance of repetitive tasks. Medical
devices manufacturing is a particularly promising market for robotics, since most tasks performed in
this sector need cleanroom standards. Robotics will eliminate any product contamination that might
be caused as a result of employing human labor to perform these jobs.
Apart from contamination and probability of error being high, clinical and pharmaceutical
research operations could also lead to motion injuries in humans. "Automation of these tasks
using robotics has decreased the errors drastically and increased the productivity and efficiency of
the labs," says the analyst of this research. "Robotics is also used to assist surgeons in
minimally invasive surgeries in hospitals and in the treatment of cancers using radiosurgery."
Robotics Market Gains Fresh Opportunities with Transition of Wafer Standards from 200 mm to
300 mm
Cleanroom robotics has received new lease of opportunities with the semiconductor industrys
significant transition in wafer standards from 200 mm to 300 mm. End-user manufacturers have been
increasingly adopting this standard. "Cleanroom robots are used for machine loading, unloading,
transfer of parts as well as assembling, packaging, and testing of wafers," notes the analyst.
"Robotics is expected to be extensively used in handling of these wafers on chemical mechanical
planarization (CMP) machines and in other applications such as photolithography and ion
implantation."
Due to the 200 mm wafer standards increasing obsolescence, advancement of technology, and
growing use of robotics in CMP machine processing tasks, cleanroom robotics is expected to see a
surge in sales.
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