Posted on Thu, Jul 08, 2010
The semiconductor industry's largest event of the year, SEMICON West, is right around the corner. And with the market in recovery, we expect it to be a good turn out and a great show.
This year, Cimetrix has several exciting new developments to discuss at the show:
- GEM Implementation - Faster & Better
We've been at work developing a new solution that enables an even faster GEM implementation... while still improving the already high level of quality you've come to expect from Cimetrix. Designed to cover 90% of typical GEM interfaces, the new solution helps reduce time to market (and headaches) for our customers.
- The Year for Interface A - Are you Ready?
ISMI announced the new Freeze Version of the Interface A Standards on June 17. Also, with increased SEMI investment and fabs requiring implementation, this has quickly become a hot topic. Is your software able to support multiple versions of the Interface A standard at the same time? Are you set up to adopt the new version effectively and efficiently?
We would love the opportunity to discuss your unique needs and projects with you further at the show.
Not registered for the show? Email us for a free pass.
We will be in the South Hall - Booth #2331.
See you at the show!
Posted on Thu, Jun 24, 2010
by Dave Faulkner,
EVP, Sales & Marketing
Engineers love data. Business people love information. But it all starts with high-quality, real-time data. The possibilities are endless with good data.
As an equipment supplier, history probably has you living with a tool architecture from the early 300mm days. The focus was on implementing AMHS systems and meeting the GEM300 standards. A data driven architecture wasn't on the radar screen. And it wasn't a business priority. Times have changed. Fabs started asking for more data by creating the SEMI Interface A standards - and equipment suppliers are learning they can produce more productive equipment by leveraging the right data.
Interface A was an interesting concept when it started in the early 2000s. Discoverable data available to the fabs in real time would seem to be the answer to many problems. But the adoption has been less than stellar - even with strong endorsement and technical support by ISMI. Lack of fab side applications plumbed to use the Interface A data and "ownership" issues of the data haven't helped. These are real business problems that must be solved and will be solved with the next wave of fab purchases.
But what have we learned as equipment suppliers and software providers? Tool data models are helpful. Self description is great. We can create high performance data gathering applications that integrate with existing tool control architectures to make data available and controllable by the equipment supplier. Look at the performance of CIMPortal, our comprehensive equipment data acquisition (EDA) solution. We also learned that given the opportunity to "start over", we can create new tool control architectures that are data driven and prepared for the future. Look at CIMControlFramework. So the data is available - or you can make it available with an existing or new tool control architecture.
Let's put this data to work. Either to benefit you as the tool supplier or to help your customer. How is your tool accepted at the fabs? Do you have contingencies on your customer's payments? Does tool uptime have an impact on the tool price? Are your warranty costs too high? You get the point. With high-quality, real-time data at our fingertips, we can solve some of these business issues. We are at the beginning of a phase where the tool supplier makes use of this data and it directly impacts business results. Tool side fault detection, preventative maintenance, whatever is needed. The important point is we are finally starting from a strong foundation with the right data at the right time - and it can lead to increased margins or higher levels of customer satisfaction. Bring us your business problem and let's build something together to put this data to good use. Let's do it now!
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Posted on Tue, Jun 08, 2010
by Brian Rubow,
Product Manager
I have been a Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America for about 5 years now. Our troop goes camping several times a year. Utah offers a lot of beautiful and interesting camping areas. The variety is remarkable. In our troop we spent a lot of time teaching and preparing the boys to not only have fun, but also be safe and wise in their fun. Some planning ahead, training and common sense can make a huge difference. Nearly every week, I have our Senior Patrol Leader help all of the scouts in our troop recite a number of memorized phrases including the Scout Oath, Law, Slogan, Motto and sometimes even the Outdoor Code. The Scout Motto is the famous one known to almost everyone in the world; "Be Prepared". Reciting it every week helps our minds to remember to focus on being prepared for whatever may come. We prepare the boys to handle emergency situations such as medical and weather related emergencies. "Be Prepared" applies not only to scouting activities like camping, canoeing and hiking, but also to school, our careers and everything we do.
At Cimetrix we also like to "Be Prepared". In particular, at the time we designed our EDA (Interface A) products, CIMPortal and EDAConnect we recognized a need to support multiple versions of the standard. Since 2006, there has been only one allowed version of the EDA standards. This is the ISMI Freeze Version which specifies the 1105 version of the SEMI® standards. At Cimetrix we knew that at some point in the future the 1105 ISMI Freeze Version would not be the only version implemented. As co-chair of the DDA Task Force responsible for the development of the SEMI EDA standards, I can personally attest that the standards have continued to change, mature and improve. At Cimetrix, we predicted from the start that at some point in the future, factories would want these new features in the standards and that ISMI would announce another EDA Freeze Version.
Due to the nature of the underlying SOAP/XML technology, the client and equipment are required to use the same version of the SEMI standards. With one and only one ISMI Freeze Version, this is easy. Everyone's implementation works with everyone else's implementation. With more than one ISMI Freeze Version, it is more complicated. Each equipment supplier has to support each ISMI Freeze Version to communicate with the different client software at different factories or even in the same factory. Each factory has to support each ISMI Freeze Version to communicate with the different equipment implementing different versions.
ISMI is poised to announce another EDA Freeze Version soon. Certainly the factories using the EDA standards will expect equipment suppliers to adopt the new version as soon as possible. And certainly factory data collection applications will want to adopt the new version and take advantage of the new features.
To "Be Prepared" for the future, Cimetrix originally designed both EDA products, CIMPortal and EDAConnect, for the future. Each product is designed with an abstraction layer to be able to support multiple EDA versions at the same time. This makes it possible for Cimetrix to adopt the new EDA versions without rearchitecting the products. In turn, this passes on tremendous value to our customers who also will not have to rearchitect their solutions. In fact, Cimetrix customer should be able to upgrade to new Freeze Versions with relative ease. It is nice to "Be Prepared".
Schedule a meeting at SEMICON® West 2010 to discuss your Interface A needs further!
Or visit us at Booth #2331, South Hall.
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Posted on Tue, Nov 03, 2009
Industry organizations, such as SEMI and ISMI, have been touting the benefits of the Interface A, also known as EDA, standards for years. This year, SEMI approved an important revision to these standards to incorporate many of the lessons learned from early implementations. In addition, SEMATECH member companies (which make up 50 percent of the worldwide chip market) wanted ISMI to focus on a smaller number of projects with short-term benefits for 2009. Interface A (EDA) is on this short list.
Want to learn more?
Cimetrix is hosting a FREE webinar outlining the features and benefits of the Interface A standards. The material will be presented by Doug Rust, Director of Quality Customer Support and co-chair of the SEMI North America GEM300 Task Force.
FREE WEBINAR: Interface A Features & Benefits
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Time: 8:00 am MST/ 7:00 am PST/ 10:00 am EST/ 3:00 pm GMT
Duration: 1 hour
Learn from Cimetrix's experienced engineering staff just what the
Interface A standards are and how you can benefit from better quality and higher quantity data.
- The key features & benefits of Interface A
- Data & reporting features available through Interface A
- The role of Interface A in manufacturing
DOWNLOAD THE RECORDED WEBINAR HERE.
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Posted on Tue, Oct 06, 2009
by Bill Grey,
Director of Research & Development
Engineers often ask, “What are the differences between Interface A and SECS/GEM for data collection.” This is a high-level comparison of Interface A and SECS/GEM/HSMS-SS data collection features. We are working on some tools to help demonstrate Interface A data collection. More on that later….
Clients
Interface A supports multiple clients where SECS/GEM is usually a single client.
Security
Interface A can be configured for SSL secured communications. Only clients with a valid certificate can use the interface and all data across the wire is encrypted.
HSMS is not secured. In HSMS, any host that has the device ID can connect and data across the wire is binary encoded, but not encrypted.
Additionally, Interface A client features are gated by privileges where GEM features are not privileged.
Equipment Model
Interface A E125 provides methods for its client to upload a description of the logical structure of the equipment which includes parameters, events, and exceptions assigned to modules, subsystems, and IO devices. In this manner, each parameter, event, and exception has the context of the owning component.
In GEM, similar information is found in a manual provided with the equipment. Unfortunately, in most equipment manuals, the relationship of which component on the equipment produces the parameter, event, or exception is not available. Context is missing.
Traces
Interface A traces have features that GEM traces do not. Interface A traces have start and stop triggers. These triggers may include one or more events and/or exceptions. The trace would begin collecting data when any of the start triggers occurs and stop collecting data when one of the stop triggers occurs. This is useful as a trace for a processing module may be defined to start when a processing started event occurs and to stop when a processing completed event occurs for that module. In this manner, the Interface A client defines the trace once and collects the data only when processing is active. Between the triggers, data is collected at the specified rate. The rate is specified with a floating point number designating the number of seconds between samples. The resolution is limited by the equipment.
In GEM, traces begin when defined through a SECS message and end when the specified number of samples is collected. To achieve the same effect as Interface A, a host would have to define event reports for the processing module processing started and processing completed events. When the processing started event is received, the host would have to define the trace by sending a SECS message. When the processing completed event is received, the host would have to terminate the trace with a SECS message. The host would have to do this every time, unlike Interface A. There is a delay between the processing started event and when the trace starts because of the SECS messaging that isn’t there with Interface A. GEM traces are limited to centisecond resolution by the E5 standard even if the equipment could support faster traces. Some older GEM implementations are limited second resolution.
Event Reports
Interface A event reports specify an event and an optional set of parameters to be collected when that event occurs. The Interface A client activates the event report to begin monitoring the event and deactivates the report to stop monitoring the event.
GEM event reports are a little different. A GEM host defines collections of parameters called reports. Then it links one or more reports to one or more events. The same report may be linked to multiple events if needed. Then the host enables the event to begin monitoring the event and disables the event to stop monitoring the event.
Alarm Reporting
Interface A exception reporting is very different than GEM Alarm reporting. Interface A exception reports are defined using a source ID, exception ID, and severity. Any of the fields may be empty or filled in. Source ID identifies which component provides the alarm, for example a processing module or load port. If source ID is the only non-empty field, then all exceptions for that component will be monitored and reported. Exception ID identifies a specific exception name, if this is the only non-empty field, then all exceptions matching this name regardless of source will be monitored and reported. If severity is the only non-empty field, then all exceptions matching this severity will be monitored and reported regardless of source ID or exception ID. If more than one of these fields is non-empty, then reporting will be determined by applying Boolean AND logic to the fields. In addition, exception reports in Interface A may contain parameter data; however, which parameters are supplied with each exception is specified by the equipment manufacturer and not selectable by the Interface A Client.
GEM alarm reporting has two forms. For notification of an alarm being set or cleared, the host may enable alarms and receive a SECS message containing no other data. In GEM, each alarm has one set and one clear event that may be used for event reports. Using these events, the host may be notified of alarm set and clear transitions with reports that contain data chosen by the host.
Reports
Neither Interface A nor GEM provide annotated reports.
Data Collection Impact
Interface A E134 defines a mechanism for the equipment to limit the impact of client defined data collection on material processing. If data collection hinders processing, the equipment may issue a Performance Warning to all clients and deactivate their data collection. The equipment may resume data collection at a later time and issue a Performance Restored.
GEM defines no such throttling or notification mechanism.
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