User report: Cables for the cleanroom, with over 31 million cycles per year

• What was needed: Ribbon cable e-skin® flat
• Requirements: High precision, short cycle times and reliability in continuous operation
• Industry: Semiconductor production
• Success for the customer: The application has proven itself for a year with cycle times of around 1 second and thus more than 31 million cycles per year

Volume Pattern Generator" systems, VPG for short, from Heidelberg Instruments are mainly used in industrial mass production. They use UV lasers to generate photomasks with high precision and speed, which serve as templates for the production of microchips, sensors, LEDs and MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems). Other possible applications for VPG systems include the direct writing of microstructures on wafers.

In addition to extremely high precision, 24/7 operation and very short cycle times every second are part of the requirement profile of the drives in the systems. Michael Kappel, Head of Electrical Design: "That's why we develop many core components, including air-bearing XY tables, in-house." As the exposure process takes place under clean room conditions, the drive components must be selected accordingly. This applies in particular to the energy, signal and media supply lines to the XY table. Even the smallest dust particles impair the quality of the exposure. Another requirement is at least as important. Kappel: "Even the slightest disturbance in the course of the energy supply must be avoided, as it reduces the precision of the exposure."

During this development project, igus® presented the e-skin® flat: a new cable carrier concept that dispenses with the chains that were previously used. Instead, the cables and hoses are guided in flat profiles - so-called pods - which can be opened and closed individually as required. This compact system allows a very small bend radius and is resistant to wear and abrasion during movement, also because there are no chain links that touch each other. This means that it can be used in clean rooms - even in multiple layers - as confirmed by tests carried out by the Fraunhofer IPA. The innovation came at the right time: the design engineers in Heidelberg built a demonstrator for endurance tests with the new energy supply, which has now completed 120 million cycles with ISO 1 in the igus® test laboratory. The cable passed the test to the user's complete satisfaction. igus® carried out the final adjustments to the fastening elements - and the new energy supply system for the "small" VPG and ULTRA systems was complete

This solution has now been in use for a good year and has proven itself in practice, even in very dynamic applications with cycle times of around one second - that's more than 31 million cycles per year. Heidelberg Instruments uses high-quality igus® chainflex® cables with an abrasion-resistant TPE jacket.