JP2001306136A - Method and system for accessing state information of production facility utilizing internet - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method wherein users can obtain various kind of state information including the present operation state and the like of various kinds of facilities through Internet even in the outside in real time. SOLUTION: The state information access method of production facilities utilizing Internet includes a step displaying the screen equipped with definition items through a web server for the users so that the users can request the state information data of various kinds of production facilities, a step requesting to the Web server defining user's requests regarding the production facilities, a step requesting state information data requested by users to the production facilities and a step that the Web server transfers the state information data transferred from the production facilities and preserved in a database control department to the user system with the form subjecting to user's definition.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and a system for accessing state information of production equipment using the Internet, and more particularly, to various kinds of information including the operating status of various equipment even when an external user is connected via the Internet. The present invention relates to a method for obtaining status information in real time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 1 shows various equipments 101 to 103 and a host computer 10 constituting a production line of a conventional factory.
5 shows a communication method according to the fifth embodiment. The host computer assigns appropriate operation commands to a number of facilities and each production unit
(Lot) has been used to manage simple operating states such as the presence or absence of processing. However, it is impossible to positively expect the requirements at the current factory, that is, various situations occurring in the production process and the utilization of the past operation data only by such a communication system.

[0003] A variety of situations include equipment failures occurring during the production process as state information starting from various production facilities, dosage and concentration of raw materials, various environmental conditions (including temperature, pressure, etc.), It is information on the operating state of the transporting entity, the presence or absence of an abnormality in auxiliary equipment in the equipment, and the usage time for determining the point of time for periodic inspection, etc. The fact is that they cannot accept the conditions. In addition, in the conventional communication method, the user cannot access the status information material from outside, and there is an inconvenience that the user has to move directly to the space where the host computer exists.

[0004] However, at present, no report has been found on a system for supporting external access to various facilities in a factory, and information of a desired form can be easily accessed outside using the Internet. The present invention is the first technique to perform this.

[0005]

As described above, the inventor of the present invention has sought a solution to the problems of the conventional communication system. The fact that it is possible to access the status information for the production equipment and overcome the limitations of the processing speed and capacity of the host by installing the web management server inside the production equipment separately from the host and outside the production equipment separately Thus, the present invention has been completed.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for accessing state information of a production facility using the Internet.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a user system for requesting status information of a production facility and a status of various production facilities interconnected with the user system via a communication network. An internet including a web server for providing information, and various production equipment systems provided to a production line and interconnected with the web server via a communication network to transfer own status information to the web server upon request of the web server; To provide a state information access system for production equipment utilizing the system.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a method and a system for accessing state information of a production facility using the Internet.

According to the method for accessing state information of a production facility using the Internet of the present invention, materials relating to current, past, or future state information of various facilities arranged on a production line of a factory are externally utilized using an Internet network. How to access.

According to the method of the present invention, a user connects to a web server through a computer communication network in which a web server (hereinafter simply referred to as a "web server") for providing status information on a production facility and a user system are interconnected. The web server displays a screen having definition items of the user's request so as to be able to request status information data of various production facilities, defining the user's request for one or more production facilities. Requesting the web server, the web server requesting the one or more production facilities for a status information material requested by a user, and the web server being transferred from the production facility and stored in a database management unit. Transferring said state information material to said user system in a user-defined form. Including.

The production equipment is not particularly limited as long as it is arranged on a production line for various products, and is not particularly limited, but includes semiconductor and LCD / TFT-related production equipment. .

The above objects and other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. 2a and 2b show an overall block diagram of the present invention.

According to the present invention, there is provided a system for accessing status information of a production facility using the Internet, a user system for requesting status information of the production facility, interconnected with the user system via a communication network, and various types according to a user's request. A web server for providing status information of a production facility, and various production facility systems provided to a production line, interconnected with the web server via a communication network, and transmitting own status information to the web server at the request of the web server. It is characterized by including.

At least one of the production facilities 201 and 220 is connected to the web servers 205 and 225 through the intranet 203 or the internal direct connection 221, respectively, and is a communication program for exchanging status information with the web servers. Is desirable.

Also, the host computers 207 and 227 generally provide appropriate operation commands to various facilities of the factory system and manage simple operation states such as the presence or absence of processing of each production unit (Lot). The host computer is connected to a web server via an intranet, and it is preferable that information on each facility be transmitted once via the web server.

Communication between the production facility and the web server generally follows a protocol determined at the time of manufacture according to the nature of the facility located in the factory. For example, in connection with semiconductor production equipment, SIMI (Semiconductor Equipme
ntand Materials International) defined protocol SECS-I / II (SEMI E4 / SEMI E5 standard) or HSMS /
Communication is performed using GEM (SEMI E37 (E37.1) / SEMl E30 standard).

The user systems 210 and 230 are connected to a web server through the Internet networks 209 and 229, and the connection requests the user to request status information for various facilities. And converts the material obtained as a result of inquiring the material requested by the user into a format that can be viewed on the user system and transfers it.

FIG. 3 is a procedure block diagram showing a method of accessing the state information of a production facility using the Internet according to the present invention step by step.

A user drives a web browser using an ordinary method such as Explorer or Netscape to connect to a web server 301,
The connection 302 to the user's web server is performed by a request of HTTP, typically by inputting a URL of the web server or clicking a corresponding URL link using a web browser.

A plurality of the web servers may be provided for each process unit such as a production facility for each process (FIG. 2A), and may be provided internally for each production facility (FIG. 2B). Although it is also preferable for the practice of the present invention, the user is required to use the UR of the web server provided for each arrangement unit for each process.
L can be input independently and connected, or each web server can be connected by a hyperlink and connected using a homepage provided by one web server.

After the user connects to the web server, the web server displays a screen having definition items of the user request on the user system so that the user can request status information data of various production facilities. become. In this case, it is preferable that the definition items of the user request include an item for inquiring the specific equipment, information on the time and the number of times, and an item on a transfer form of the state information material from the web server. Through the above items, the user can define and request 304 the status information of the desired equipment to the web server, and access the material in the desired form by defining the transfer form of the status information material from the web server. It is possible to in this case,
The transfer form preferably includes a form of document output on a screen based on HTML or a form of E-mail transfer based on SMTP.

When a user requests status information materials for one or more production facilities from the web server, the web server searches for the status information materials transmitted from the production facilities and stored in the database management unit, and searches for the status information materials. Preferably, the method includes a step 305 of determining whether the material exists. If this is already existing data, it is not necessary to separately inquire the production equipment, so that the system can be efficiently operated. If the material is already stored in the database of the web server in the above step, the material is transferred 308 to the user system. An inquiry 306 is made for a material relating to the state information. The material transmitted from the corresponding equipment in response to the inquiry is stored in the data storage unit and then transmitted 308 to the user system in a form defined by the user 307.

When the status information transferred from the production facility to the web server changes in real time, the status information material is required to be updated in real time. In this case, it is desirable to update the material using CGI or Java script. This makes it possible to dynamically update the material that changes in real time.

FIG. 4 shows the internal structure of the web server. The web server 400 of the present invention includes a network connection interface unit 402 for transmitting and receiving data between an external production facility 401 and the web server, and analyzes the data transferred from the interface unit to store the data in a database management unit or A material interpreting unit 403 for requesting the network connection interface unit to transfer materials requested by the specific production equipment to the host computer and transferring the materials required for the specific production equipment, and a material transferred from the material interpreting unit to the equipment. A database management unit 404 that stores the data in the allocated predetermined area and provides the material stored in the allocated area according to a user's request, and manages a user's requirement for each production facility and uses it with a web server. Includes a user request management unit 405 for providing an interface with the user system 406. The features.

The network connection interface unit 402
Is converted into a message format determined by a protocol using a material transferred from the production facility through the physical layer and transferred to the material interpretation unit 403, and the material requested to be transmitted to the production equipment from the material interpretation unit. Converts the message according to the communication method defined in the protocol and transmits the message through the physical layer.

The material interpreting unit 403 analyzes the header of the material to be transferred, determines the equipment number and the equipment byte, and transfers the data to the data storage unit 404 when it determines that the request is requested by the user. When it is determined that the transfer is not based on the request from the user, the network connection interface unit performs a role of requesting the host computer to transfer data. With the above configuration, the web server intervenes in communication between the existing facilities and the host. At this time, the web server passes through the material transmitted to the host computer and the material transmitted from the host computer to each facility without any modulation. The communication method between each facility in the process and the host computer and the data used along with it can be used without modification or addition.

Also, the database management unit 404 analyzes the material input from the material interpretation unit, opens the corresponding database through the attached facility address, and then stores the received material in the fields defined in the record. It is desirable to classify and record. In addition, the data ace storage unit provides the items and conditions requested by the user request management unit through an existing database.
If the user's request desires a new database, it creates this and serves to implement the record that implements the field.

The user request management unit 405 serves to convert materials requested by the user into a document transmitted from the database and read by the user.
The user request management hierarchy is composed of two types of functional parts in detail, and one is a part for managing items and condition tables defined so that the user inquires the equipment,
The user defines the items to be inquired to the specific equipment and the time and the number of times (sampling), and such information is managed by the corresponding production equipment and when the defined time comes, the information is transmitted to the database management unit. Data collection (data collec
begins). The other is to perform a function to provide a user interface that allows a user to connect to a web server using a web browser, and is generally responsible for generating an HTML document and connecting to a LAN management layer. Shows the list of the main items defined by the current user and the production equipment, and shows the contents of the items selected by the user from any list in the form of charts and graphics.

FIG. 5 shows a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in which the present invention is applied to semiconductor production equipment. In the above embodiment, the communication protocols SECS-I / II and HSMS (SEMI E
quipment Communications Standard 1 Message Transfe
r ； E4 、 SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 2M
essage Transfer; E5, High speed message service,
Show the overall system configuration diagram for production equipment according to SEMI E-37, E-37.1).

SECS-I is a serial data exchange method using RS-232C as a physical layer, and is often used between a host computer, which is an external control device, in semiconductor production equipment and liquid crystal display (LCD) production equipment. It is used for communication. SECS-II is a message format that defines SECS-I on a physical basis, and the relevant production equipment and control device converts the desired material into the message format defined by SECS-II and converts this to a lower layer. Transfer to the other party using the SICS-I method.
In addition, the HSMS is a transfer method in which the transfer speed of SECS-I has been improved.
-I or HSMS can be used.

FIG. 5A shows a preferred embodiment according to one aspect of the present invention. A state information access system of a semiconductor production facility using the Internet includes a user system 510 for requesting a state information material of each production facility 501; A web server 505 interconnected with the user system via a communication network 503 and providing status information of various production facilities at the request of the user; provided to a production line and interconnected with the web server via a communication network; It includes various production equipment systems that transfer their status information to the web server at the request of the web server.

FIG. 5B shows a preferred embodiment according to another aspect of the present invention. A state information access system for a semiconductor production facility using the Internet is provided in each production facility 520.
A user system 530 for requesting status information materials, a web server 525 interconnected with the user system via an internal communication network 523 to provide status information of various production facilities at the request of the user, and to a production line. And various production equipment systems that are interconnected with the web server via a communication network and transmit own status information to the web server at the request of the web server.

The above-mentioned state information material means trouble contents of equipment occurring in the production process, dosages of various gases, pressure inside production chambers, pressure of the inside of production equipment (robots, etc.). This includes information on the operating status of), the supply amounts and concentrations of various chemical substances, the presence or absence of abnormalities in various auxiliary devices (sub-modules) in the equipment, and the usage time for determining the point of time for periodic maintenance. .

The storage space for the materials is basically stored in the operation software of the equipment when the production equipment that complies with the SEMI standard is designed, and is updated and stored in real time when the equipment is operated. Provided externally in a format that conforms to the SIMI rules. Therefore, in order to receive the data from each device, the corresponding device must be requested through the communication networks 503 and 523 in the form of SECS-I / II / HSMS.

Except when the server 525 is installed in each production facility as shown in FIG. 5B, when the server 525 is installed outside the production facility, as shown in FIG. It is desirable to provide a plurality of units, one for each arrangement unit (bay). According to the function of the equipment, the arrangement unit can bind similar ones by about 10 to 20 units, but is not necessarily limited to these numerical values, and in consideration of server efficiency and the like. You have to judge overall. Therefore, in some cases, it is also preferable in the embodiment of the present invention that the number of facilities in each arrangement unit exceeds the above range.

In the above drawing, the web server is connected to the equipment using SECS-I / II or HSMS by the external communication method by RS-232C or TCP / IP, and is connected to the equipment in real time in the form of SICS-I / II or HSMS. Upon requesting the data, each facility transmits the data to the web server in the form of SECS-I / II or HSMS. At this time, in order to deal with a large number of facilities, the web server divides the entered data by the facility ID in each header of the SECS-I / II or HSMS system and records the data in each database separately.

Before the request, the web server requests a list of materials from each facility to the required items (S
VID, status variable ID, etc., and select each request time point, the web server stores it in the property file (configu
After saving to the relevant equipment, the required items (SVID) are inquired to the corresponding equipment at the set time. Applicable equipment stores SECS-I on the web server
The material, which is transmitted in the form of / II or HSMS and enters the web server as a response to the request, is recorded in a predetermined area of the data ace allocated to each facility.

If the user requests the material of interest through his / her personal computer through a web browser, the web server searches the corresponding database in a corresponding database and then obtains the search result to display the material on the user's web browser. The converted material is converted into an HTML document through the Internet 509 and 529 and transferred to TCP / IP. The web server continuously performs the above operations based on the characteristic files set by the user and accumulates respective databases. In addition, the user can define the material on the web server in the form of a certain report through a web browser. In this case, the web server can transmit the e-mail in a report format defined by the user at a time determined by the user.

As described in detail above, the web server intervenes in the communication between each device and the host computer, and transmits the material transmitted to the host computer in each device and the material transferred from the host computer to each corresponding device. Pass it through without any modulation. Therefore, the corresponding equipment and the host computer do not feel any difference in software from the existing host-centered method because the web server passes the data received by itself as it is without modulation as described above. is there.

The RS-232C interface unit, which is a network connection unit, is physically connected to the production equipment in the form of the RS-232C and is in charge of SECS-I communication. If the equipment is HSMS that is not SICS-I method, it is in charge of TCP / IP communication. The interface unit performs a function of determining whether a received signal can be received according to a system defined by SEMI, detecting various physical errors, and requesting retransmission. In addition, SECS-II type materials that require transfer by the material interpretation section are SICS-I (or
HSMS) format and sends it to the corresponding output terminal to perform physical error detection and retransmission if necessary. Also, if there is more than one connection target production equipment and if it is SECS-I, RS
-232C is connected by a multi-port which supports -232C, and the multi-port is constituted by a set of a pair consisting of an input terminal and a corresponding output terminal.
If there is no problem with the reception of the RS-232C signal received at the input terminal, the interface unit attaches the address of the terminal that received the received material and the address of the production facility that sent it to the SECS-II data format. Immediately after conversion, it is sent to the Material Interpretation Department.

The material interpreter analyzes the material input from the RS-232C interface (or HSMS) (SECS-II message p
Then, the RS-232C interface unit (or HSMS) requests the RS-232C interface unit (or HSMS) to detect the error of the message layer and to re-transmit the message when necessary. If there is no problem in the above process, the material interpreting unit determines whether the material is a material sent to the web server in the production facility through a system byte in a token generated after analyzing the material. Decide whether or not to allow. If the received material is not the one sent to the web server, the material interpreting unit immediately distorts the material without distorting the RS-232C interface unit.
(Or HSMS) with the address of the sending terminal attached to request sending. On the other hand, if the material corresponds to the web server, the material is sent to the database management unit. Also, the database management unit performs a function of requesting the RS-232C interface unit (or HSMS) to transmit the data required for the specific production equipment with the corresponding equipment address and the address of the transmission terminal attached.

The database management unit analyzes the material input from the material interpretation unit, opens the corresponding database through the attached equipment address, and receives the data from the fields defined in the record. It is desirable to classify and record materials. Also, the database management unit requests items and conditions (quer
Perform the function of providing y) through the existing database.
If the user needs a new database, the database management unit creates the new database and implements a record constituting a field.

The user request management unit is composed of two types of functional parts, one of which is an item and condition table management part (item and query ma) defined so that the user inquires the equipment.
nagement table). The user defines the item to be inquired to the specific equipment and its time and the number of times (sampling). This process is continuously repeated as information is communicated and data collection begins.
The user can classify specific items among the defined items as report items, and the items can be transmitted to the user in an e-mail format at a defined time.
The other is responsible for HTML document generation and connection with the LAN management layer, and sends materials requested from upper layers.

The HTML document generation and LAN management layer provides an interface that allows a user to connect using a web browser (Web Server), and stores a list of items of interest currently defined by the user and a production facility thereof. Show and show the contents of the item selected by the user from the arbitrary list in a chart or graph. The user can define a new item of interest and an inquiry time, but this information is managed in a lower layer and is inquired by the production equipment at the corresponding time.

As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, the user can receive various state information of desired production equipment in a form defined by the user using the Internet.

[0047]

According to the present invention, it is possible for a user to easily access the status information of various production facilities outside without any difficulty. In addition, the user can obtain the desired status information of various facilities in a defined form. There are advantages that you can ask for.

Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and any person having ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs can apply the idea and spirit of the present invention. The invention could be modified or changed without departing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a conventional communication method between a host and each production facility.

FIG. 2A is a system configuration diagram of the system of the present invention including a web server outside a production facility.

FIG. 2B is a system configuration diagram of the system of the present invention including a web server inside a production facility.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of accessing state information of a production facility using the Internet according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a web server of the present invention.

FIG. 5a is an embodiment of one aspect of the present invention for semiconductor production equipment.

FIG. 5b is an embodiment of a semiconductor production equipment according to another aspect of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 201, 220 Production equipment 203 Intranet 221 Internal direct connection 205, 225 Web server 207, 227 Host computer 210, 230 User system 209, 229 Internet network

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B049 AA02 BB07 CC21 DD00 DD05 FF03 GG02 GG04 GG07 5H223 AA05 CC08 CC09 DD03 DD05 DD07 DD09 EE06

Claims (18)

[Claims] 1. A method of externally accessing status information provided by various production facilities, wherein a user connects to a web server through a computer communication network in which a web server and a user system are interconnected. The web server displaying a screen including definition items of the user's request so as to be able to request the equipment status information material; defining the user's request for one or more production facilities by defining the user's request; Requesting a web server, wherein the web server communicates with the one or more production facilities,
Requesting the state information material requested by the user, and transferring the state information material transferred from the production facility and stored in the database management unit to the user system in a form defined by the user; A method of accessing state information of a production facility using the Internet. 2. If the status information material for a specific production facility requested by the user is already stored in the database management unit, the user immediately defines the data without inquiring the production facility. The method according to claim 1, wherein the status information is transferred to a user system in a form. 3. The production facility using the Internet according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the production facility is a production facility in accordance with SECS-I / II or HSMS of a communication protocol defined by SEMI. State information access method. 4. When the status information transmitted from the production facility to the web server changes in real time, the status information material transmitted from the web server to the user system is transmitted in real time using CGI or Java script. 3. The method for accessing status information of production equipment using the Internet according to claim 1, wherein the status information is updated. 5. Status information, such as fault contents of equipment occurring during the production process, doses of various gases, pressure inside the production container, operating state of the transport of production materials in the equipment, and supply of various chemical substances. 4. The state of the production facility using the Internet according to claim 3, including information on the quantity and concentration, the presence or absence of abnormality of various auxiliary devices in the facility, and the use time for determining the point of time of the periodic inspection. Information access method. 6. The status of the production facility using the Internet according to claim 1, wherein the status information material for the production facility provided by the web server includes a form of screen output, disk storage or e-mail. Information access method. 7. The transmission of the status information of the relevant equipment to the user system by the web server is based on TCP / IP.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the status information is in HTML format. 8. The various state information materials obtained by requesting the production equipment by the web server at the request of the user are determined by the equipment number and the equipment byte existing in the header area and requested by the user. If it is determined, the data is stored in the area allocated to the corresponding equipment in the data storage unit, and if the data is normally transmitted to the host computer, the data is transmitted to the host computer without modulation. 2. The method for accessing state information of a production facility using the Internet according to claim 1. 9. A user system for requesting status information of a production facility, a web server interconnected with the user system via a communication network, and providing status information of various production facilities at a user's request, and a production line. A state of a production facility using the Internet, comprising various production facility systems provided to the web server and interconnected with the web server via a communication network and transferring own status information to the web server at the request of the web server. Information access system. 10. The communication between the web server and various production facilities is performed by using the SECS-I / II or HSMS protocol, and the communication between the web server and the user system is performed by using the TCP / IP protocol. Item 9. A status information access system for production equipment using the Internet according to Item 9. 11. A web server, comprising: a network connection interface unit for transmitting and receiving data between an external production facility and the web server; analyzing the data transferred from the interface unit;
A material interpreting unit that requests the network connection interface unit to transfer the material to a database management unit or a host computer and to transfer material required by a specific production facility to the facility, and is transferred from the material interpreting unit. A database management unit that stores data in a predetermined area allocated to the equipment, provides the data stored in the allocated area according to a user's request, and manages user's requirements for each production equipment, and The system according to claim 9, further comprising a user request management unit for providing a user interface with the server. 12. The state information of a production facility using the Internet according to claim 11, wherein the production facility is a production facility in accordance with the communication protocol SECS-I / II or HSMS defined by SEMI. Access system. 13. The network connection interface unit converts the data transferred from the production equipment into SECS-II format and transfers it to the data interpretation unit, and receives the data transmitted from the data interpretation unit to the production equipment. The system for accessing status information of a production facility using the Internet according to claim 12, wherein the status information is converted into a form of SECS-I or HSMS and transmitted. 14. The data interpreting unit analyzes the header of the material to be transferred, determines it as the equipment number and the equipment byte, and if it determines that it is at the request of the user, transfers the data to the data storage unit. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein when it is determined that the transfer is not due to a request from the user, the network connection interface unit requests the host computer to transfer the data.
State information access system for production facilities using the Internet described in 1. 15. The access system according to claim 12, wherein the user request management unit transmits the material requested by the user from the database and converts the material into an HTML document. 16. The access system for a production facility using the Internet according to claim 15, wherein the material requested by the user includes an item for inquiring of the specific facility and information on time or number of times. 17. The system according to claim 9, wherein a plurality of web servers are provided for each arrangement unit of the production equipment for each process. 18. The system according to claim 9, wherein the web server is built in the production equipment for each process.