In a fabrication plant, a single failing motor can put tool uptime, cleanroom integrity, and yield at risk. Protect your motors from VFD-induced bearing damage.
Every fab depends on motors it can’t afford to lose: the air handlers holding cleanroom class, the chillers and pumps cooling process tools, the vacuum and abatement systems down in the subfab. Put a variable frequency drive (VFD) on any of them and you introduce shaft voltage, a current that discharges through the bearings and wears them out from the inside.
SGS shaft grounding gives that current a safe path to the motor frame instead, so the damage never starts and your critical motors keep running.
Trusted by Leading Semiconductor Companies
SGS shaft grounding systems have been installed in facilities operated by Intel Corp, Micron, Texas Instruments, ON Semiconductor, TSI semiconductors, TSMC Washington and Global Foundries, helping protect critical motors from bearing damage and premature failure.
In most plants, a failed motor bearing is a maintenance item. In a fab, the stakes are higher.
The motors that move cleanroom air and cool your process tools run continuously, and when one degrades it doesn’t just threaten downtime. A failing bearing introduces vibration and particles into environments where nanometer-scale precision and cleanroom integrity are non-negotiable, putting tool performance and yield at risk well before the motor ever stops.
What makes this failure mode so deceptive is its pace. The damage accumulates over months, and the motor does warn you first, growing louder and rougher as the bearing wears. Miss those signs and the bearing eventually seizes, and in a running fab the interruption that follows costs far more than the motor ever did.
This Isn't Theoretical: We Studied It in a Fab
SGS’s understanding of electrical bearing damage is grounded in real data.
Using vibration analysis, we studied 1,150 AC motors in a semiconductor plant, 1,000 of them driven by VFDs and 150 across-the-line, all in similar cleanroom applications, as part of the research that established how VFDs damage motor bearings and how to prevent it.
You can read the full background in our overview of bearing damage due to electrical discharge.
Where Shaft Voltage Damages Fab Motors
SGS Shaft Grounding Systems divert shaft current safely to the motor frame, away from the bearings, across your fab's motor population:
Cleanroom and facility air:
- Recirculation air handlers and makeup air units
- Fan filter units and cleanroom fans
- Exhaust and scrubber fans
Process and subfab systems:
- Process cooling chillers and chilled-water pumps
- Ultrapure water pumps
- Vacuum, abatement, and other subfab equipment
How SGS Protects Your Semiconductor Motors
SGS Shaft Grounding Systems divert shaft current safely to the motor frame, away from the bearings, across your fab’s motor population:
- CR Series: our axially mounted, sealed-brush system for standard NEMA and IEC frame motors. The right fit for the majority of fab motors, from cleanroom air handlers and fan filter units to process pumps and chillers.
- SR Series: a split-ring system for large-frame motors, grounding both shaft ends where circulating currents are a concern, such as large process chiller compressors.
- DR Series: a solid-ring system for motors that can be uncoupled, ideal for planned retrofits during scheduled maintenance windows.
Why SGS Is Ideal for Semiconductor Facilities
You protect the motors without interrupting the fab.
The CR Series brush is sealed and field-serviceable, inspected and replaced in under a minute while the motor keeps running, so protecting a cleanroom or process motor never means taking the system it serves offline.
For a facility that can’t absorb unplanned interruptions, that sets SGS apart from ring-based devices that require the motor to be stopped and often disassembled.
- Fast availability: same-day shipping within the US and rapid international delivery, so a protective part is never the reason a repair waits.
- Built for continuous duty: long service intervals and simple rebuild kits for motors that never stop.
- Proven and US-made: 40 years of shaft grounding experience, manufactured in the USA.
Whether you’re specifying protection into new tool and facility motors or retrofitting the fleet you already run, the CR Series installs in the field without disrupting production.
FAQs
1. Can shaft grounding be installed without shutting down the fab?
Yes. The CR Series brush is field-serviceable and can be installed or replaced in under a minute while the motor runs, so you protect cleanroom and process motors without taking the systems they serve offline.
2. Which motors in a semiconductor facility need shaft grounding?
Any motor driven by a variable frequency drive is at risk. In a typical fab that includes recirculation and makeup air handlers, fan filter units, exhaust and scrubber fans, process cooling chillers and pumps, ultrapure water pumps, and subfab vacuum and abatement equipment.
3. Can a failing motor bearing affect cleanroom performance or yield?
Yes. As shaft voltage wears a bearing, it introduces vibration and can shed particles well before the motor stops. Shaft grounding removes the electrical discharge that causes that damage, keeping motors running smoothly and protecting the precision and cleanliness your process depends on.
Protect the Motors Behind Every Wafer
Tell us about your fab's cooling, cleanroom, and subfab motors, and we'll recommend the right shaft grounding solution for your facility.