SECS/GEM for Legacy Semiconductor Equipment

SECS/GEM for Legacy Semiconductor Equipment Nirav Thakkar Founder & President

Background – Automation Purpose • Prevent human errors • Selecting wrong recipe – automated through barcode/RFID scan • Data entry errors – metrology or other process params

• Extract & analyze data from equipment • Process parameters, alarms, events, equipment configuration, etc.

• Implement FDC & APC • Improve yield, OEE, cycle time, equipment up-time • Reduce equipment maintenance cost, “fire-fighting”, total cost of manufacturing

Background - What is secs/gem?

• SECS/GEM protocol/standard for communication between a semiconductor equipment and factory systems – Host, FDC, AMHS, etc.

• Allows factory systems to collect process parameters – temp, pressure, gas flow, etc., alarms/errors & events – process start, step finished, etc.

• Also allows factory system to send commands to equipment, such as selecting a recipe, start processing, abort, etc.

• Other features, such as equipment configuration settings, upload & download recipes, etc.

• Messages of the format – SxFy, eg. S2F41 message to send remote commands to the equipment, S5F1 is for equipment to send alarms to the factory host, etc.

• Visit https://www.einnosys.com/introduction-secs-gem/ for more info

Legacy Equipment Automation Challenges • SECS/GEM interpretation must be implemented on both sides – equipment as well as factory system – host, FDC, or other

• Factories can’t implement SECS/GEM on the equipment on their own • SECS/GEM on the equipment has to be integrated with the equipment software, which requires source code of the equipment

• Legacy – Equipment on which you can’t get SECS/GEM capability • OEM out of business, asking “an arm & a leg”, licensing disputes, etc.

Cost of NO Automation on legacy equipment • Yield loss, due to • Human errors – technician selecting wrong recipe • Lack of data to analyze and enhance process or equipment configuration

• Longer equipment downtime & increased maintenance cost, due to – • Lack of automated notification of equipment alarms/warnings • Lack of equipment performance data

• Lower throughput & OEE, higher Cycle Time • Lower morale due to constant fire fighting

Equipment Software Layers

Options to Automate Legacy Equipment • Purchase SECS/GEM from OEM, if available • Transfer equipment logs and process for data collection • Tap communication between PLC or I/O controller and controller PC • Connect factory system to equipment PLC or I/O Controller • Implement innovative solutions

Interfacing at GEM Interface Layer

Purchase SECS/GEM from OEM •Pros

Cons

• Supported by OEM

• Most likely expensive

• Most reliable, if it’s been running for many years at other factories

• May require other hardware and software upgrade – additional cost, tool down time & engineering time to re-qualify equipment & recipes

• Both data collection & machine control options available

• Cost & effort may be an overkill if only data collection is required of a few data items

• Fully or close to fully SEMI compliant solution

Best option, if available and cost & equipment downtime is reasonable

Options to Automate Legacy Equipment • Purchase SECS/GEM from OEM, if available

• Transfer equipment logs and process for data collection • Tap communication between PLC or I/O controller and controller PC • Connect factory system to equipment PLC or I/O Controller • Implement innovative solutions

Transfer equipment logs and process for data collection •Pros

Cons

• One of the easies ways to extract data from equipment

• Only data extraction, no machine control

• Safe method – it’s unlikely that this method of extracting data would cause equipment issues

• Data extracted are not real-time but historical, so FDC or similar solution can’t be implemented

• Don’t need OEM support in most cases

• No uniform solution across the factory as the method of extraction changes from tool to tool • All data may not be available on all equipment

One of the easiest & safest option to extract historical data

Options to Automate Legacy Equipment • Purchase SECS/GEM from OEM, if available • Transfer equipment logs and process for data collection

• Tap communication between PLC or I/O controller and controller PC • Connect factory system to equipment PLC or I/O Controller • Implement innovative solutions

Interfacing between Hardware & Software

Tap Communication between PLC or I/O Controller & Controller PC •Pros • None

Cons • Most intrusive and riskiest option – could easily impact function or performance of equipment • Detailed understanding of controller PC and PLC is required • Time consuming – trial & error • No uniform solution across the factory as the method of extraction changes from tool to tool

Most intrusive and risky method, could affect equipment reliability

Options to Automate Legacy Equipment • Purchase SECS/GEM from OEM, if available • Transfer equipment logs and process for data collection • Tap communication between PLC or I/O controller and controller PC

• Connect factory system to equipment PLC or I/O Controller

• Implement innovative solutions

Connecting directly to Equipment Hardware

Connect factory system to equipment PLC or I/O Controller •Pros

Cons

• No OS dependency, since factory system is directly connecting to the hardware

• Quite intrusive method, one could impact equipment operation if not careful

• Detailed knowledge of controller software and its communication with hardware not needed

• Knowledge of where each sensor/device is connected to the PLC and how to extract needed

• Data extraction can be done thru’ standard protocols like OPC, Modbus, etc.

• No uniform solution across the factory as the method of extraction changes from tool to tool

Intrusive and risky method, could affect equipment reliability

Options to Automate Legacy Equipment • Purchase SECS/GEM from OEM, if available • Transfer equipment logs and process for data collection • Tap communication between PLC or I/O controller and controller PC

• Connect factory system to equipment PLC or I/O Controller

• Implement innovative solutions

EIGEMBox – the safest way • Based on patent pending technology – EINNOSYS • Plug-n-Play • No software or hardware installation on equipment required • Doesn’t matter which OS is running on the equipment • OEM support not needed • Takes minutes to setup and seconds to disconnect

• Safest non-intrusive way, since you are not even interjecting at OS level or application level • Built-in IoT capabilities to extract data from outside sensors as well and send data from these sensors also as SECS status variables

EIGEMBox – Plug-n-Play Solution

More info at www.einnosys.com/eigembox

EINNOSYS – Semi Software Specialists Capital Equipment Software 100+ Years

Fab/Assembly Automation

Industry 4.0 & Smart Factory

Fab/Assembly Automation • • • • • • • • •

Yield Management Cycle Time, OEE & equipment up-time improvement through automation Fault Detection & Classification (FDC) Advanced Process Control (APC) Cycle Time, OEE & equipment up-time improvement through automation Cost savings through automation MES development, customization & migration Automated Inspection (AOI) through computer vision systems RFID based WIP tracking & Inventory Management

SECS/GEM Products • EIGEMBox • EIGEMEquipment & EIGEM300Equipment • SDK for OEMs – in .Net, C++, Java (Win, Linux & Android) • EIGEMHost & EIGEM300Host • SDK for Fabs/Assemblies – in .Net, C++, Java (Win, Linux & Android)

• EIGEMSim • SECS/GEM testing/simulation software (Win & Linux)

Other Automation Products • • • • • • • • •

EIRMS – Recipe Management System EIAMS – Alarm Management System EIPartsManager – Spare Parts Management EIGEMHost – SECS/GEM software for fab host EIGEMSim – SECS/GEM compliance testing EIQRSTS – Consumables Tracking EIMobileMonitor – Industry 4.0 & Smart Factory EIBarcodeGuardian – Chemical Management EIMWS - Wet Bench Automation

OEM Products & Services • SECS/GEM implementation • Controller(GUI) & PLC software development & maintenance • Sub-tool Integration • EFEM, Robot, SMIF/FOUP, OCR, RFID, Barcode, etc.

• Computer Vision & Image Processing software • Data collection & analysis software • QA, Compliance Audit, Software Refactoring, Design Reviews

Delivery Model

•Product Solutions •Custom Applications •Manpower Services

THANK YOU

Email: nirav@einnosys.com web: www.einnosys.com Call: +1.805.231.2424 Skype: einnosys