300 mm Equipment Software Requirements Defined

International SEMATECH and Selete, the two semiconductor manufacturing technology consortia, announced in March the formation of a joint effort to support implementation of industry standard software functionality in 300 mm equipment.

Semiconductor manufacturers require implementation of 300 mm production equipment based on the CIM Global Joint Guidance and SEMI standards. "This collaboration effort is intended to provide guidance to equipment suppliers on the interpretation and application of those standards, and these first results achieve that. Because the industry agrees on how to proceed, equipping 300 mm factories will move forward more smoothly," said Randy Goodall, associate director of manufacturing methods and productivity at International SEMATECH. "The results of this collaboration will reduce variation in requirements and encourage consistent implementation among all equipment makers," said Kenichi Kawashima, director and general manager, Selete Manufacturing Technology Research.

In an interview with Semiconductor International, Goodall said guidelines and standardization are fundamental to the success of 300 mm implementation. "We did an early, good job of describing the hardware interfacing in terms of guidelines and tests for assessing that," he said. "We have taken on the somewhat more difficult and complex software interfacing as the second stage of this guidelines process, and where we are right now is starting to lay out these base requirements for what tools have to do inside a fab." He said the main focus now is to make sure "that equipment suppliers have a very precise understanding of what they need to implement and where they need to put their energy in terms of common capability, so they can apply their energy to differentiate on technical performance."

The document sets forth definitions in 23 areas, including the equipment frontend module type (EFEM), unit cycle size, number of loadports, carrier type, FOUP clamping, FOUP undocking, carrier handoff, carrier ID type, carrier delivery and pickup (access mode), access mode change, carrier ID verification, loadport reservation, slot map reader, slot map verification, substrate tracking, and recipe download.

Functionality requirements for internal buffer batch processing tools will be unveiled in July during SEMICON West, and extended requirements and sample scenarios for these tool types are scheduled for release in October. •