Patent Analytics of Robotics Technology for Intelligent Manufacturing in the Semiconductor Industry

Abstract

Manufacturers are making a transition to intelligent production, particularly in high-tech industries. Robotic arms play a crucial role in the effectiveness of transforming processes. This research searches and analyzes patents related to robotic arms utilized by intelligent manufacturing systems. For this preliminary study, global patent trends are discussed which help evaluate the technology domain to be developed. Key words from a literature review are used to search for relevant patents, and then the patent text is analyzed using text mining software and program. The core technique applied to the patent document analysis is "Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency" (TF-IDF). Using TF-IDF, the patent documents are grouped into meaningful sub-technology cluster. Thus, the economic data related to the semiconductor industry is analyzed to correlate the economic impact which may be related to the transitions in technology. The data of Taiwan firms were targeted for anticipating research directions and expand intellectual property domains to invest in and pursue. For the advanced analysis, the international patent codes for global and local companies are compared. The final results help define the strength and weakness of Taiwanese robotic technology development for the semiconductor industry. Patent cluster and patent distribution analysis via a technology function matrix are the primary research approaches used for the case study. The research prepares for the development of a theoretical foundation to predict intelligent manufacturing trends.