【翻译】智能制造中EDA 应用及益处系列之三：实时吞吐量监控

在本系列文章(2017年12月19日发布)的介绍中，我们列出了其中的一些生产利益相关者，他们的工作目标直接由我们将在本文和后续文章中强调的应用程序来实现的。在第二篇文章中，我们解释了将关键利益相关者群体的关注点映射到特定EDA接口需求的过程，这些需求可以直接包含在购买规范中。

在本文中，我们将解释一些接口需求如何支持一个重要的工厂应用程序，这个应用程序具有跨所有设备类型的通用适用性，即“实时吞吐量监视”。这个应用程序可以实际地与各种设备类型一起工作，而不需要定制代码或配置，当然，这取决于设备供应商如何忠实地实现需求规范中所引用的SEMI标准。这个强大的概念极大地提高了fab自动化团队的软件工程生产力，因此我们将花一些时间来解释这是如何实现的。

问题陈述

该应用程序解决了实时监控设备吞吐量性能的问题，并在设备因为任何原因偏离“正常”时发出警报。这对于瓶颈设备(例如，litho轨道和扫描仪)尤其重要，因为任何吞吐量的损失都会波及整个线路，导致生产及其相关收入和利润的损失。简单地说，“在瓶颈设备上损失的时间永远无法恢复。”

解决方案组件

这个应用程序需要的数据主要包括记录基片在设备中移动的设备事件，以及适用于该设备类型的配方的执行(工艺，测量，检测，分片等)。有了这些信息，应用程序就可以“动态”计算工艺时间，并将当前值与期望值(“正常”)进行比较。

这并不像初看上去那么简单，因为期望值可能取决于产品类型、工艺类型、材料状态、层、配方和其他几个因素。综合起来，决定不同批次在某些加工用途上的“等价性”的一组因素被称为“上下文”。对于这个应用程序，上下文参数确保您在查找进程时间变化时比较的是有可比性的东西。

EDA(设备数据采集)标准的杠杆作用

通过“EDA”，我们不仅包括了Freeze II / 0710套件中的标准，还包括SEMI E164 (EDA通用元数据)、E157(模块工艺跟踪)，并参考了整个GEM 300套件。这不仅确保了精确跟踪晶圆移动和步骤级别配方执行所需的事件支持的粒度和广度，而且还指定了这些事件及相关参数的命名约定，无论设备类型或供应商是什么。

如果设备自动化购买规范包括陈述“我们要求实现所有引用的300mm SEMI 标准中定义的状态机，状态，状态转换的事件,以对象属性， 并且命名要同标准中定义的一样。”的条款，那么，你编写一个真正通用的吞吐量监视应用程序应该需要的所有的信息将是随时可用的。

一个健康的实时吞吐量监控算法可以只用以下SEMI标准的信息来实现:E90(基片跟踪)、E157(模块工艺跟踪)、E40 / E94(工艺/控制作业管理)和E87(晶舟管理)。下面的图显示了其中两个(E90和E157)的Harel状态图、感兴趣的事件和EDA元数据模型表示*。

 

注意，对于每个事件，通过EDA构造的包含一个或者多个“事件请求”的 “数据收集计划”(DCP)来收集的参数信息要求是同样多的。有关这些功能的更多信息，请直接查阅SEMI E134(数据收集管理)规范，或查看我们网站上的大量的教育材料。

EDA标准的另一个优势是多客户端功能。通过允许自动化软件团队成员在独立于其他应用程序的情况下，收集和处理此应用程序的数据，这有助于提高他们生产力和响应能力。具体地说，吞吐量监视功能可以与承载GEM命令和控制功能的其他系统单独实现，那些功能通常被非常小心谨慎地管理，因为它们对fab的运行有潜在的负面影响。

ROI的关键因素

正如我们在本系列的第一篇文章中所说的，这个应用程序不仅仅是您去为具备EDA功能的设备去构建和部署什么东西而已……事实上，这已经完成了，并且正在带来实际的生产和制造效益!具体来说，这个应用程序影响的ROI因素(和交付的收益)包括生产力偏移平均检测时间(MTTD，减少了50%)、选定的设备吞吐量改进(3-5%)和总体周期时间减少(由于分阶段实施过程，很难精确量化)。

当然，这些结果将根据制造商的fab负荷、运营策略和整体自动化能力而有所不同，但对于领先接近满负荷运转的晶圆厂来说是有代表性的。然而，由于这些是非常常见的ROI因素，大多数公司可以很容易地用实际财务术语量化这些改进。

在结束前……

一如既往，我们欢迎您的反馈，并且期待与您分享智能制造之旅。

*该设备元数据模型片段的可视化是由Cimetrix ECCE Plus产品(设备客户端连接模拟器)生成的。

 

 

EDA Applications and Benefits for Smart

Manufacturing Episode 3: Real-Time Throughput Monitoring

 

 

In the introduction to this series (posted December 19, 2017), we listed some of the

manufacturing stakeholders whose work objectives are directly addressed by the applications we’ll highlight in this and subsequent postings. In the second article, we explained the process used to map the care abouts of key stakeholder groups into specific EDA interface requirements which are can then be directly included in the purchasing specifications.

In this post, we’ll explain how some of those interface requirements support an important factory application that has general applicability across all equipment types, namely “real-time throughput monitoring.” This application can realistically work with a variety of equipment types with no custom code or configuration depending, of course, on how faithfully the equipment supplier implements the SEMI standards referenced in the requirements specification. This powerful concept greatly improves the software engineering productivity of a fab’s automation team, so we’ll take some time to explain how this is possible.

Problem Statement

This application addresses the problem of monitoring equipment throughput performance in real time, and raising an alarm when it drifts away from “normal” for any reason. This is especially important for bottleneck equipment (e.g., litho tracks and scanners), because any loss of throughput ripples throughout the line, resulting in lost production and its associated revenue and profit. Stated simply, “lost time on a bottleneck tool can never be recovered.”

Solution Components

This application requires data that includes primarily the equipment events that chronicle the movement of substrates through the equipment and execution of the recipes appropriate for this equipment type (process, metrology, inspection, sorting, etc.). With this information, the application calculates the process time “on the fly” and compares the current value with the expected (“normal”) value.

 

 

This is not as simple as it first may seem, because the expected value will likely depend on the product type, process type, material status, layer, recipe, and several other factors. Taken together, the set of factors that determines “equivalence” of different lots for some processing purpose is called “context.” For this application, the context parameters ensure that you are comparing apples and apples when looking for variations in process time.

EDA (Equipment Data Acquisition) Standards Leverage

By “EDA,” we include not only the standards in the Freeze II / 0710 suite, but also SEMI E164 (EDA Common Metadata), E157 (Module Process Tracking), and by reference, the entire GEM 300 suite. This ensures not only the granularity and breadth of event support necessary to precisely track wafer movement and step-level recipe execution, but also specifies the naming conventions of those events and their associated parameters, regardless of equipment type or vendor.

If the equipment automation purchase specifications include clauses that state “we require that all state machines, states, state transition events, and attributes of the objects defined in the referenced 300mm SEMI standards be implemented and named exactly as specified in the standards,” then all the information you should need to write a truly generic throughput monitoring application will be available on demand.

A robust real-time throughput monitoring algorithm can be implemented with information solely from the following SEMI standards: E90 (Substrate Tracking), E157 (Module Process Tracking), E40 / E94 (Processing / Control Job Management), and E87 (Carrier Management). The Harel state diagrams, events of interest, and EDA metadata model representation* for a couple of these (E90 and E157) are shown in the figures below.

 

 

Note that as little or as much of the parameter information required to be available for each event

(the rightmost picture in each figure) can be collected via the EDA construct of a “Data Collection Plan” (DCP) with one or more “Event Requests.” For more information about these capabilities, consult the SEMI E134 (Data Collection Management) specifications directly, or review some of the extensive educational material available on our web site.

The other point of leverage for the EDA standards is the multi-client capability. This contributes to the productivity and responsiveness of your automation software team members by allowing them to collect and process the data for this application independently from any other application. Specifically, the throughput monitoring functions can be implemented separately from whatever systems host the GEM command and control capabilities, which are usually managed very carefully because of their potentially negative impact on fab operations.

Key ROI Factors

As we said in the initial post of this series, this application is not just something you could build and deploy with EDA-enabled equipment… in fact, this has already been done, and is delivering real production manufacturing benefit! Specifically, the ROI factors impacted (and benefit delivered) by this application include productivity excursion mean-time-to-detect (MTTD, 50% reduction), selected equipment throughput improvement (3-5%), and overall cycle time reduction (difficult to quantify precisely because of the staged implementation process).

Of course, these results will vary depending on the manufacturer’s fab loading, operations strategy, and overall automation capabilities, but are representative for leading edge production wafer fabs

running at near capacity. However, since these are very common ROI factors, most companies can easily quantify these improvements in real financial terms.

In Closing...

As always, your feedback is welcome, and we look forward to sharing the Smart Manufacturing journey with you.

 

*The visualizations of equipment metadata model fragments are those produced by the Cimetrix ECCE Plus product (Equipment Client Connection Emulator).

Posted by Alan Weber: Vice President, New Product Innovations on Mar 28, 2018 11:13:00 AM