openSECS™_driver in Visual Studio .NET Development Environment

openSECS™_driver is a software library which provides connectivity and communication with SECS (SEMI Equipment Communication Standards) compliant semiconductor manufacturing equipment. It is the first of its kind to be designed and built entirely for Microsoft .NET environment.

openSECS™_driver is designed from ground-up for object-oriented programming. The object model is intuitive while providing powerful features for SECS interface development. From connectivity (E4 SECS-I, E37.1 HSMS-SS) to message construction and library (E5 SECS-II) as well as built-in logging and parsing utilities.

Harnessing the benefits of .NET Framework and the development environment of Visual Studio .NET, openSECS™_driver enables developers to build SECS interfaces into their software with speed and ease within a tightly integrated set of comprehensive platform. Organisation benefits from getting the most out of their existing technology investment as .NET offers compatibility to yesterday's technology while creating new ways to implement powerful, cost-effective information technology for future needs.

Already a proven technology with implementation in several front-end and back-end fabs, from IDM to sub-contractors, openSECS_driver is embedded into station controllers, EI middleware, compliance test tools and other diagnostic and production software.

openSECS™_replicator offers additional SECS/GEM port to EQ

openSECS™_replicator (OSR) is a service system designed to enable an equipment to have concurrent connections with multiple hosts via SECS communication, removing the single-host limitation of SECS communication.

The OSR is designed on .NET managed code environment that can be very easy to deploy and scale while ensuring the system reliability and robustness. Its thin and efficient design helps maintain the performance level of SECS communication of the served equipments to the hosts. While extending an existing communication to support an additional host, no modification to the host applications is required.

Another key features of OSR is its dual protocols support, rendering the served equipment to be able to communicate with a SECS-1 host and HSMS-SS hosts concurrently, irrespective of the SECS/GEM protocol of the equipment. The OSR comes in two flavors - Dual hosts connection, and, Multiple hosts connection options. A typical deployment of the OSR is to add equipment monitoring host to an existing wafer mapping application for a die bonder.

openSECS™_sniffer displaying sniffed SECS-II message from network packets

openSECS™_sniffer is a HSMS/SECS-II enabled network sniffer, designed for capturing and analysis of the packets going through the network. It captures the data passing through your network interface, and represents it in readable form.

Unlike other generic network sniffer, openSECS™_sniffer is specially build for semiconductor industry. openSECS™_sniffer has HSMS and SECS-II knowledge built-in, which enables it analyze HSMS/SECS-II packets, and present them using SML (SECS Markup Language), a de facto standard for the industry.

Using our openSECS™_sniffer, you will be able to troubleshoot nasty HSMS/SECS-II communication related problem between factory application and equipment software easily without needs to manually interpret raw packets captured using generic network sniffer.

openEDA™_clientLIB as a plugin .NET library

The openEDA™_clientLIB is developed based on the latest SEMI EDA (Interface-A) standards. It shares the same XML-schema component as the ISMI validated openEIEU™_plus EDA (Interface-A) Interim Evaluation Utility (EIEU) assured highest level of standards compliance. Designed to be consumed as a standard Microsoft .net library, the PDTOEDAL can be easily deployed by developers.

It helps to establish connections with multiple equipments in an efficient and manageable way, failing which, system security, sessions integrity, and data capture performance may be compromised. Its rich features help to ease the web services setup and consumption, without having to worry about the underlying transportation issues, allow developers to concentrate on the domain issues and build quality applications in the most productive way.

Several novelty implementations such as build-in web server, message sniffer, single web server support to multiple sessions greatly simplify, accelerate and enhance the EDA client application development.

Semiconductor Backend Equipment Integration

Open Integration Equipment Integration Server (openEI™_server (EIS)) is a middle-ware server application designed to provide connectivity between multiple equipments and various host applications. Due to the limitation of SECS/GEM standards, only one host application is allowed to be directly connected to an equipment at any one time.

To enable multiple host applications to connect to a piece of equipment concurrently, EIS serves as a middle-ware which connects itself directly to equipments and allow multiple host applications to communicates with equipments via the server.

In addition, openEI™_server (EIS) also serves as a message translator. It translates binary SECS/GEM messages from equipment to high-level .NET events and XML messages before sending those messages to receiving host applications. It also translates XML messages received from host application to SECS/GEM messages before sending those messages to the target equipment. This feature effectively shielded host applications from the need to understand SECS/GEM protocols and language.

openEIEU™_plus is executing ISMI Evaluation Method

openEIEU™_plus is designed as a comprehensive EDA diagnostic tool that supports SEMATECH/ISMI defined EDA Interim Evaluation Utility (EIEU) requirements.

The ISMI EDA evaluation method (3.0) is included as part of the package offers common interim evaluation criteria for the industry. However, its rich features and ease-of-use GUI based integrated Build, Test, Analyze and Report application functions, are ideally suited for further research, study, and investigation of the EDA implementation especially at this critical juncture of the emerging EDA standards.

Mindful of the eventual need for an advanced software tester as envisaged by the industry led by ISMI, a migration path from the openEIEU™_plus to the openAST™_plus to safeguard both the investment and the knowledge on the work done is planned.

openGEM™_test with integrated BUILDER, TEST & REPORT

The current GEM standard compliance test tools in the industry can at best offer a compromise solution. Automation Conformance Testing (ACT) of semiconductor equipment is limited by canned test plans of individual SEMI GEM and GEM300 standards with similar restricted 300mm FAB operational scenario tests. This key handicap is attributable to the lack of a flexible test plan builder/editor function of the available tool to support customization, fine-tuning, and enhancement of test scenarios very much desired by IC makers to address their specific needs. As a result, quality and comprehensiveness of tests are at best compromised, impairing the goal to shorten the time in bringing the equipments into the factory integration environment, where, yield and productivity cannot rely without.

The openGEM™_test with an integrated GUI based test plan "Builder", test "Executor", and, automated test results "Report" is designed to fully address these shortfalls. It is ideally suited to complement the existing tools with invested test plans, filling the GAP by allowing customized operational scenario and additional behavioral tests on equipment to be developed, fine-tuned, and enhanced along the way in accordance to the operational requirements of the respective IC Makers. This will invariably increase the comprehensiveness of confidence levels of tests. The openGEM™_test comes standard with test plans of individual SEMI (E4, E5, E37, E30) standards ready for use by 200mm FABs, Backend (A&P) plants, and their equipment suppliers. The 300mm FABs can also put the tool into immediate use with the above ready test plans, while, taking advantage of its flexible and powerful test plan "Builder" to develop their own customized 300mm operational scenario test plan, freeing them from the handicap imposed on them in these past years.

openSIM™_pro - Visual Scenario Builder

CIM team in today's manufacturing environment needs to produce highest quality Equipment Integration solution for FAB within shortest time. Develop equipment integration solution has become more challenging today. Deliver a highest quality EI, which utilizes lowest equipment time for development and testing, and produce lowest defect to reduce equipment downtime, improve FAB throughput has become one of the toughest challenges of CIM Engineers today.

In order to meet such stringent requirements from the FAB, legacy SECS simulator that performs only manual trigger SECS messaging is no longer able to meet today's fast changing requirement.

Manual trigger to verify host is a very difficult, tedious, and more importantly, it is an error prone way. openSIM™_pro is specifically designed to tackle these needs of host verifications. With openSIM™_lite, host testing will be automated, and consistent. Well designed scenario on openSIM™_lite can ensure that the EI is always tested thoroughly before it is implemented to production environment. This will be able to reduce unscheduled downtime of the production equipments.

openFABsim™_300 set up for MES Validation

Introducing significant changes to critical production systems (i.e. Manufacturing Execution system) on a production floor has always been a challenge. A key issue is the need to conduct high confidence tests, validating the correctness and performance of the new system. Unfortunately, production requirements (i.e. lack of equipment time) usually limit the quantity and quality of the tests we can conduct.

openFABsim™_300 resolve this issue by providing a highly realistic testing environment. openFABsim™_300 simulates equipments at a FAB-wide level. The simulated equipments are capable of interacting with 300mm capable Equipment Integration (EI) components just as in actual production. This way, we are able to validate the target production system with high confidence without the need of actual equipment time.

By providing a high-fidelity simulation environment, the openFABsim™_300 has proven to be able to help to detect and eliminate potential issues (e.g. configuration, un-anticipated dead-locks etc)

DACserver™_OUI - Equipment & Operations Data & Root-Cause Capturing

A good FAB productivity system begins with a sound and comprehensive data acquisition strategy from the equipments and their operations. Our uniquely implemented equipment states and operational data acquisition system - the DACserver™_OUI is designed to support equipments that are SECS/GEM compliant and also those that are not. Equipment states data of the later are captured via a programmable Data Acquisition Devices (DAD) which tap the states signals from appropriate points from the non-SECS compliant equipments. Operational inputs are captured through an ergonomic Operator-User-Interface (OUI).

The DACserver™_OUI system re-maps, collates and deposits these acquired data into a unified database following the SEMI E10 standards recommendation to ensure data consistency, accuracy and integrity while maintaining that relevant equipment and operational productivity KPIs such as OEE, MTBF/MTBA/MTTR, Throughput, Alarms Pareto and their root causes, can be easily analyzed and drill down to help address the hard to diagnosed chronic production losses.

Equipment Performance Monitoring with root-causes drill-down

A good FAB productivity system begins with a sound and comprehensive data acquisition strategy from the equipments and their operations. Open-I's DACserver™_OUI best fulfilled this critical role as described previously.

The acquired data FAB-wide can now be mined. Standard SEMI E10 inspired reports are accessible by Managers and relevant users via secured browser access from their office or wherever and whenever the need to.

The reports are set up in a top down view so that problem identification to effective resolution can be achieved in the most expedient way. Equipment and operational productivity KPIs such as OEE, MTBF/MTBA/MTTR, Throughput, Alarms Pareto and their root causes, can be easily analyzed and drill down to help address the hard to diagnosed chronic production losses.

The database is set up for performance, scalability and support flexible data mining so that other specific analyses and reports such as benchmarking and performance comparison.

A Generic and Equipment Vendor Independent BE-RMS System

A given FAB has to be concerned with hundreds and even thousands of recipes. Automating recipes downloading, uploading, and version control is a must than a luxury. Product scraps is not an uncommon phenomena in many FABs due to wrong recipes applied, as human errors are unavoidable.

Current recipe management has been equipment type based at best. Such point based approach gives rise to many new issues - many systems (inconsistent) to manage, costly to acquire, high training and maintenance costs, plant-wide process correlation is hard to achieve etc.

Open-I's openRMS™_plus is designed to address precisely such issues. With a generic architecture, it can be easily adapted for each equipment type, for example in backend FAB, recipes from Pre-assembly equipments, FOL (DB, WB, Oven, ..) to EOL (Mold, Laser Marking, ) .. etc, can be managed in a centralized, and consistent way eliminating all the shortcomings of the point, or, equipment vendors approach.

Integrated into the recipe management system is the Bond Process Monitoring option of the Parameters Management & Control system that ensure not only the correct version of recipe is selected and downloaded, any in-process change of parameters that is out of the process guardband can be eliminated.

Easy Setup of Equipment Parameters to be Monitored & Controlled

A given FAB has to be concerned with hundreds and even thousands of recipes. Automating recipes downloading, uploading, and version control is a must than a luxury. Product scraps is not an uncommon phenomena in many FABs due to wrong recipes applied, as human errors are unavoidable.

Current recipe management has been equipment type based at best. Such point based approach gives rise to many new issues - many systems (inconsistent) to manage, costly to acquire, high training and maintenance costs, plant-wide process correlation is hard to achieve etc.

Open-I's openPMC™_plus is designed to address precisely such issues. With a generic architecture, it can be easily adapted for each equipment type, for example in backend FAB, recipes from Pre-assembly equipments, FOL (DB, WB, Oven, ..) to EOL (Mold, Laser Marking, ) .. etc, can be managed in a centralized, and consistent way eliminating all the shortcomings of the point, or, equipment vendors approach.

Integrated into the recipe management system is the Bond Process Monitoring option of the Parameters Management & Control system that ensure not only the correct version of recipe is selected and downloaded, any in-process change of parameters that is out of the process guardband can be eliminated.