Current and Pending
By: James Moyne
University of Michigan
MiTeX Solutions, Inc.
(November 1998)
The following is a glossary of SEMI Standards and pending SEMI Standards that relate to equipment automation and software. The glossary is broken down into two categories, namely SEMI Standards and Pending SEMI Standards (which includes SEMI activities). Within each category entries are arranged in alphabetical order. All SEMI standards are documented in the Book of SEMI Standards (BOSS). Specifically, unless otherwise noted, all SEMI standards identified herein are documented as "E" standards in Equipment automation/Software Volumes 1 and 2 of the BOSS.
SEMI Standards:
| STANDARD | DESCRIPTION |
| Automated Reliability, Availability and Maintainability Standard (ARAMS) | This standard defines concepts, behavior and message services to facilitate equipment level capture and communication of equipment reliability, availability and maintainability information as specified in SEMI E-10: Guideline for Definition and Measurement of Equipment Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM). This recently approved standard is part of the 1997 BOSS. |
| Cluster Tool Module Communications (CTMC)
Standard (E38) |
This standard addresses communications with and among modules within a cluster tool. This is a component of a suite of standards for cluster tools being developed by the Modular equipment Subcommittee for Communications (MESC). For this reason the standard suite is sometimes referred to as the MESC standards. |
| Exception Management (EM) Standard (E41) |
This standards addresses exception management with and among modules within a cluster tool. This is another MESC standard. |
| Generic Model for Communications and
Control of SEMI Equipment (GEM) (E30) |
The GEM standard defines the generic behavior of semiconductor equipment as viewed through a communications link in terms of SECS-II messages communicated over that link. The GEM standard impacts equipment control and equipment to "host" communications. Note that GEM does not comply with the distributed object-based control description paradigm; this paradigm is being pursued through OBEM, which may become a replacement for GEM (see below). |
| High-Speed SECS Message Services (HSMS)
Standard (E37) |
HSMS is intended as an alternative to SECS-I for applications where higher speed communication is needed or where simple point-to-point technology is insufficient; HSMS defines a communication interface suitable for the exchange of (SECS-II) messages between computers in a semiconductor factory. Although HSMS (TCP/IP) is definitely preferable to SECS-I (RS-232) in the context of a CSRS, HSMS defines a communication environment that is not conducive to distributed object-based communications (e.g., CORBA). CIM Framework and OBEM communication methodologies may be a more suitable replacement for HSMS. |
| Material Movement Management Standard (MMM) (E32) |
This standard addresses the communication needs of the semiconductor manufacturing facility with respect to material movement. For example it defines the communication structure and behavioral model for material movement. |
| Object Services Standard (OSS) (E39) |
The purpose of the OSS is to provide general terminology, conventions, and notation for describing behavior and data in terms of objects and object attributes. It defines a Rumbaugh object oriented (O-O) notation for use in SEMI standard specifications. Recent SEMI communication and integration model standards are predominantly OSS compliant. |
| Recipe Management Standard (RMS) (E42) |
This standard defines the concepts, behavior, and services to support the integration of automated recipe management within a semiconductor factory. For example, it could define the recipe management between the equipment control and run-to-run host control levels. |
| Sensor / Actuator Network (SAN) Standards (E54) |
This suite of standards defines concepts, behavior and message services to facilitate device level communication over a Sensor/Actuator Bus, thereby integrating sensors and actuators into the equipment control system. Examples of devices include mass flow device, particle counter, capacitance manometer, etc. Components of the standard include sensor / actuator network (i.e., sensor bus) communication standards (NCSs), a common device model (CDM), and specific device models (SDMs). The recent SAN suite is part of the 1997 Book of SEMI Standards (BOSS) . Three NCSs and one SDM (mass flow device) are part of this suite. Additional SDM’s and three NCSs will likely be added to the suite in 1999. |
| SEMI Equipment Communications Standard
(SECS) (E4 and E5) |
SECS is a standard for communications between intelligent equipment and a host. The standard defines the communication protocol interface (SECS-I) and the messages exchanged (SECS-II). SECS-I, which specifies point-to-point communications over a (slow) R2-232 interface is somewhat obsolete; HSMS is a high-speed replacement, but retains many of the deficiencies of SECS-I (e.g., point-to-point, host-equipment--master/slave, etc.). Wrappers and conversion tools are required to make SECS solutions consistent the CIM Framework Specification and OBEM (see below). |
| Specification for Electronic Document
Interchange (SEED) (E36) |
The purpose of this standard is to establish how documents shall be exchanged electronically between two or more entities. |
| Standard for Process Management (PM) (E40) |
This standard addresses the communications within the semiconductor manufacturing environment with respect to the processing of material in a tool. It could serve as a standard foundation for addressing parameterization of control, integration of third party software (algorithms), combining run-to-run and in-situ control, etc. |
Pending SEMI Standards:
| STANDARD | DESCRIPTION |
| CIM Application Framework Standards | These standards under development are specifications for a software infrastructure that creates a common environment for integrating applications and sharing information in a CIM factory domain. This aggressive specification makes widespread use of distributed object based descriptions to identify factory level applications and their interaction in terms of pluggable object oriented specifications. The intent is provide a modular system design so that vendors may develop factory level applications that integrate more easily and quickly with a other compliant applications to form a CIM system. The specification (likely) will eventually include an Advanced Process Control Framework which defines the implementation of host level control capabilities. The standards are based on the SEMATECH Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Application Framework Specification. The approach is very object-oriented in that it utilizes object-based OSS compliant modeling and specifies CORBA compliant communication strategies. |
| User Interface (UI) standards | A SEMI ballot document has been developed for a human interface (also referred to as Man-Machine Interface or MMI) standard. Much of the standard is roughly based on the SEMATECH Strategic Cell Controller (SCC) User Interface Style Guide (Technology Transfer Document #: 92061179A-ENG), which is a specification of guidelines for user interfaces that identifies guidelines and conventions for developing user interfaces that are characterized by a "common look and feel". |
| Object Based Equipment Models (OBEM) | The goal of the relatively new OBEM effort within SEMI is to develop a replacement to GEM that is protocol-independent and that is based on the OSS object model paradigm. It will allow a host system to reference components of equipment, including current status (attributes), and illicit and observe behavior in the equipment through service calls. Interfaces to the host system and low-level sensor bus systems are defined, however the interaction with the APC Framework specification is not clear. |