By Asa Fitch
Intel Corp.'s semiconductor production hit a stumbling block in
March. A chip plant in Chandler, Ariz., needed work done, but the
engineer for the job was stuck in Germany because of trans-Atlantic
flight restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
If Intel couldn't recalibrate existing machines and install new
ones, America's largest chip maker faced a production slowdown just
when demand was surging as personal computers and the cloud became
critical to facilitate remote work.
Unable to fly in the expert, Javaid Ikram, an engineering
manager at the plant, transported him virtually using repurposed
augmented-reality goggles that had been developed mainly to show
training videos. The stranded engineer, watching a video feed his
counterparts at Intel relayed via their goggles, walked them
through the repair, Mr. Ikram said, allowing the work to be
completed on schedule.
Across multiple industries, augmented reality, or AR, has
transitioned during the pandemic from intriguing experiment to
everyday tool, widening the industrial adoption of a technology
that many in the tech industry argue hasn't measured up to its
promise in the consumer market. The technology, which imposes
digital images onto views of the real world, allows specialists and
managers to show colleagues what to do without standing
shoulder-to-shoulder with them.
That makes augmented reality more useful in a world where
business travel and direct human interaction are restricted -- and
likely to stay that way for a while. Volkswagen AG's Porsche unit
said in April that usage of AR glasses in its U.S. dealerships more
than tripled during the pandemic as technicians performing
complicated repairs on the pricey sports cars called in virtual
help from repair experts hundreds of miles away.
In health care, a major hospital provider in London has used
Microsoft Corp.'s HoloLens goggles to treat coronavirus patients,
limiting the number of doctors exposed to people infected with the
virus and allowing specialists to provide treatment guidance from a
safer location. Broadband internet company Cox Communications Inc.
in March rolled out augmented-reality technology to its workforce
of more than 5,000 people, including home technicians and
contractors. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., a manufacturer of
scientific instruments, scaled up its use of AR, to guide customers
through repairs from afar.
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg last month said AR
-- along with its sister technology, virtual reality, where what
people view in their headsets is entirely digital -- would be
important for the tech giant's plan to permanently increase its
remote workforce over the next decade.
At Intel, the success at the Arizona plant launched remote
maintenance from an experiment to part of the company's permanent
operational plans. "The switch flipped, and the word spread and all
the other factories from around the Intel ecosystem started to say,
'Hey, we need to use this as well,'" Mr. Ikram said.
The chip industry, with its ultra-specialized machines and
highly automated factories, called fabs, is well-suited for using
augmented reality. But while chip companies toyed with augmented
reality for years, they kept it sidelined even as they added other
advanced technologies such as artificial-intelligence tools to
detect chip defects and data analytics to streamline manufacturing
processes. Cameras had long been kept from factory floors because
concerns about protecting trade secrets outweighed potential
advantages that AR devices could provide, industry executives
say.
"Previously I would have said I'm not letting a camera into my
fab. Are you crazy?" said Wayne Allan, executive vice president of
customer support at ASML Holding NV, the Dutch maker of
chip-manufacturing equipment. But in recent months, ASML has been
working with customers using Microsoft's HoloLens to help maintain
its machines at their plants.
While some smartphone-based applications of augmented reality
have become wildly popular, the adoption of AR goggles has long
lagged behind the hype, especially in the consumer market, thanks
to the bulkiness of many devices and a dearth of useful
applications.
Industrial applications are giving the technology a new boost.
Magic Leap, an AR-goggle startup, said it is shifting from the
consumer market to targeting health-care, defense and other
business-related customers.
Microsoft last year introduced the second generation of its
HoloLens -- one of the more popular devices for companies adopting
AR -- with an enterprise focus. The devices, which cost $3,500 each
and weigh about 1.3 pounds, feature a skiing goggles-like visor on
which information is displayed and tracks eye movements to help
users sift through data.
Still, consumer weakness and supply shortages are weighing on
the near-term AR market, said Ramon Llamas, research director at
market-intelligence firm International Data Corp. In April, the
firm trimmed its growth projection for sales of 10.8 million AR and
VR headsets this year: It now expects 7.1 million units to be sold,
up from 5.7 million last year.
Executives say augmented reality isn't sufficient to handle all
factory maintenance, and security concerns remain. Still, most
major chip makers are using some type of remote maintenance.
London-based Telit Communications PLC, which sells software
called secureWISE that is used to manage manufacturing tools
remotely, saw traffic via those tools more than double between
February and April, said Fred Yentz, its president of strategic
partnerships. SEMI, an industry body, has introduced standards for
remote operation.
Globalfoundries Inc., another major chip maker, faced a similar
problem to Intel's. When one of its multimillion-dollar machines
needed work, an engineer at one of its plants donned a HoloLens
headset and called up a video chat to consult an ASML equipment
expert in the Netherlands to guide him through repairs.
Globalfoundries Chief Executive Tom Caulfield said the company
is now using iPads, headsets, and AR or VR tools to do jobs once
done by traveling engineers.
ASML realized it needed a new approach when China locked down
the city of Wuhan in January to fight the coronavirus -- a need
that became more urgent when the U.S. imposed its travel ban on
Europe in March. ASML set up a team of about 30 people -- later
expanded to about 100 -- to figure out how to use augmented reality
in maintaining the machines that imprint intricate outlines of
transistors on silicon plates. ASML rolled out the service with its
first customer on March 20.
"You can take a novice and have them do intermediate work they
haven't been trained on" using the technology, Mr. Allan said. "Or
you can take somebody who's very skilled and have them do expert
stuff that we normally fly people in for."
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Write to Asa Fitch at asa.fitch@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 10, 2020 08:04 ET (12:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.