The Importance of IT Infrastructure

In today's rapidly changing global market, information technology (IT) infrastructure is more important than ever to semiconductor equipment suppliers and manufacturers. Newly emerging enterprise Ethernet infrastructures enable leading-edge productivity solutions like e-diagnostics and wireless networking.

The ability to leverage IT infrastructure-based solutions like these is crucial to success in today's market, allowing semiconductor equipment suppliers and manufacturers to increase productivity, lower costs, adapt quickly to evolving market conditions worldwide, and manage the semiconductor industry's rapid product lifecycles.

Manufacturing enterprises traditionally have been built upon an architecture of clearly defined device-level I/O, control, and business information networks. In a traditional architecture (Fig. 1 ), information moves through the enterprise in the following manner:

• Hardwired plant floor devices—such as sensors, valves, actuators and bar code readers—collect equipment and process data, and communicate this data to controllers, drives, HMIs and/or PC-based products via a proprietary field bus. Some I/O buses offer interoperability among devices and some diagnostics capabilities. Others give users the flexibility to mix and match products from multiple vendors. In either case, each device must be compatible with the standards of its respective network. Different networks are typically not interoperable, and expensive gateways are required to pass information among them.
• Peer-to-peer communications among controls and production support systems have traditionally been achieved through proprietary networks developed by controls manufacturers. While these networks provide the reliability, scalability and determinism required for manufacturing, they are expensive and difficult to maintain and integrate with other enterprise networks and information systems.
• Business information systems are networked predominantly via Ethernet TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol), which, prior to a few short years ago, was rarely used on the plant floor because of inherent performance limitations in its early forms. For this reason, integrating data from business information systems and the plant floor in real time was impossible, and information was often out of date by the time reports were compiled.

1. Manufacturing enterprises traditionally have been built upon an architecture of clearly defined device-level I/O, control, and business information networks.

Using a traditional three-tiered infrastructure, each part of the manufacturing enterprise operates more like separate companies than a unified business.

Today, Ethernet has evolved to be deterministic and robust enough to accommodate the timing and environmental demands of the plant floor. This is accomplished through proper network design and tools such as full-duplex switch gear, virtual local area networks (VLANs), routers and industrially hardened products (Fig. 2 ). As manufacturers seek to connect previously disparate islands of automation and network plant floor data with enterprise information systems, they are increasingly leveraging the power of Ethernet. By connecting the entire enterprise through this open-standard networking technology, users can access real-time enterprise data and make more timely decisions, leading to better collaboration and higher productivity.

Ethernet is a primary enabler for the Web-based technologies that are at the core of today's successful businesses. Most Ethernet-based networks use the TCP/IP communications protocol and standard application protocol family (e.g. HTTP, SNMP, etc.) and thus facilitate the use of key Internet tools such as browsers, Web servers and e-mail servers. Using TCP/IP over an industrial Ethernet network, companies can better exploit applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), vendor-managed inventory (VMI), and e-diagnostics via a standard Internet browser.

Ethernet and other IP-based networks offer a variety of additional benefits, including: 1) scalability to accommodate the growth needs of manufacturers; 2) high-speed data transmission rates; 3) cost-effective installation and maintenance; 4) a range of network management capabilities; and 5) choice of cabling types, or wireless deployment for greater mobility.

The potential productivity improvements and return on investment (ROI) to semiconductor equipment suppliers and manufacturers alike from new Ethernet-enabled solutions is enormous. Today, one of the solutions from which the semiconductor industry stands to gain the most ise-diagnostics.

2. By connecting the entire enterprise with an Ethernet connection, users can access real-time enterprise data and make more timely decisions, leading to better collaboration and higher productivity.

E-diagnostics, also known as remote monitoring and diagnostics (RM&D), allows semiconductor equipment suppliers and maintenance personnel to connect to remote sites, share information, and collaborate to solve problems. It also enables equipment suppliers and manufacturers to work remotely in real time, with real-time data, as if they were on site together. E-diagnostics solutions can be implemented on various levels, based on current and future end-user needs and resources. Using e-diagnostics, equipment suppliers can monitor their installed base from anywhere in the world at any time, pinpoint fault sources, immediately resolve the problem or dispatch expert service, and return equipment to production quickly. At the highest level, e-diagnostics positions organizations to achieve new productivity levels by enabling functionality such as statistical comparison of different sites in real time and predictive maintenance (see "SEMATECH Model ").

Whether the solution is basic or advanced, e-diagnostics is transforming semiconductor manufacturing by reducing operational costs, increasing productivity, allowing preventive maintenance of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and enabling better collaboration among manufacturers and equipment suppliers. Building a robust, secure and reliable Ethernet-based e-diagnostics network infrastructure is essential to achieving these and the many other benefits of e-diagnostics (Tables ).

One of the most important elements of an e-diagnostics implementation is security. Security is a highly involved, multi-tiered issue that is best handled by a qualified e-diagnostics infrastructure partner. Security involves far more than just keeping hackers at bay. A proper solution allows only authenticated and authorized parties to penetrate the manufacturer's firewalls to access data, while ensuring that the data is secure not only from hackers but also from "best intention" attacks. A "best intention" attack is a non-malicious attack upon system resources or data that occurs when users have incorrect authorization. For example, while authorized suppliers should have access to select data from the manufacturer, they should not be able to access data from other suppliers. If unauthorized access is allowed, the consequences — which include inadvertently deleting other parties' data — can be disastrous.

Other key components of network security include encryption of in-transit as well as stored data, intrusion detection (actively looking for breaks), and accounting (logging of all activity).

A robust, secure and reliable IT-based infrastructure designed and commissioned by an objective third party enables real-time communication and collaboration among semiconductor suppliers and manufacturers. The IT infrastructure is a critical prerequisite for enabling effective communications from the shop floor to the top floor. Connectivity is, in fact, the key to reaping the many rewards of e-diagnostics and other leading-edge productivity solutions.