Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
  • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
  • G05B19/00—Programme-control systems
  • G05B19/02—Programme-control systems electric
  • G05B19/04—Programme control other than numerical control, i.e. in sequence controllers or logic controllers
  • G05B19/12—Programme control other than numerical control, i.e. in sequence controllers or logic controllers using record carriers
  • G05B19/128—Programme control other than numerical control, i.e. in sequence controllers or logic controllers using record carriers the workpiece itself serves as a record carrier, e.g. by its form, by marks or codes on it
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
  • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
  • G05B2219/00—Program-control systems
  • G05B2219/20—Pc systems
  • G05B2219/25—Pc structure of the system
  • G05B2219/25186—Bluetooth
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
  • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
  • G05B2219/00—Program-control systems
  • G05B2219/30—Nc systems
  • G05B2219/31—From computer integrated manufacturing till monitoring
  • G05B2219/31161—Java programcode or simular active agents, programs, applets
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
  • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
  • G05B2219/00—Program-control systems
  • G05B2219/30—Nc systems
  • G05B2219/31—From computer integrated manufacturing till monitoring
  • G05B2219/31322—Work still to be done on workpiece
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P90/00—Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
  • Y02P90/02—Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Definitions

• the present invention generally relates to factories having a high automation level, and more particularly to a manufacturing system and a method for processing materials .
• CIM systems can for example support the following functions: tracking material flow through the factory, recording factory worker comments and/or relevant data pertaining to the products being manufactured, dispatching of material (in a semiconductor factory for example wafer lots) , and scheduling and transportation of material within the factory.
• a disadvantage of the factories and the manufacturing systems in accordance with the" prior art is, for example, that factory employees must interact with the CIM host system prior to performing any operation on material.
• a further disadvantage is that the host system must be maintained and upgraded either through expensive external contracts with software suppliers or through expensive internal development .
• FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a manufactur- ing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
• FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example for a direct information exchange between means assigned to a material to be processed and processing tools and for de- ciding which of the processing tools is supposed to process a respective material.
• a manufacturing system comprising: materials 110, 120 to be processed, and processing tools 130, 140, 150 for processing said materials 110, 120, wherein to each of said materials 110, 120 there are assigned means 111, 121 for directly exchanging information with said processing tools 130, 140, 150 and for deciding on the basis of said directly exchanged information which of said processing tools 130, 140, 150 is supposed to process a respective material 110, 120.
• a method for processing materials comprising the following steps: a) providing materials 110, 120 to be processed, b) providing processing tools 130, 140, 150 for proc- essing said materials 110, 120, c) assigning to each of said materials 110, 120 to be processed means 111, 121 for directly exchanging information with said processing tools 130, 140, 150 and for deciding which of said processing tools 130, 140, 150 is supposed to process the respective material 110, 120, d) directly exchanging information between said means 111, 121 and at least some of said processing tools 130, 140, 150, and e) deciding on the basis of said exchanged informa- tion which of said processing tools 130, 140, 150 is supposed to process the respective material 110, 120.
• the need for a large and expensive centralized CIM system may be eliminated. Further more, delays in processing due to factory workers interacting with the CIM system may be avoided.
• the basic idea of the present invention is that material can be enabled to decide how and where it will be processed within a fac- tory through direct communication with the processing tools and, if necessary, further automation equipment.
• suitable transport means 112, 122 For transporting the materials 110, 120 between the processing tools 130, 140, 150 there may be provided suitable transport means 112, 122. If the materials to be processed are wafers, these transport means may for example may be pods 112, 122, for example FOUPs (Front Opening Unified Pods) , capable of transporting and storing wafers and wafer lots, respectively. In this case respective means 111, 121 may be assigned to each pod 112, 122.
• the means 111, 121 preferably comprise radio communication means 113, 123 for directly exchanging the information with the processing tools 130, 140, 150 via a radio link 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175.
• the BLUETOOTH protocol may be used for the respective radio links 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175.
• high bandwidth local wireless networks may be used for the direct information exchange.
• At least a part of said means 111, 121 may, for example, be formed by PDAs (Personal Data Assistants) . Onto these PDAs at least part, but preferably all of the product information can be downloaded.
• the product information may for example be directed to the process flow, the split requirements, the process recipes, and the tools which support the required process steps.
• Suitable PDAs may for example be JAVA enabled PDAs .
• the means 111, 121, for making their decisions may consider one or more of the following criteria: next processing step to be performed, types of the processing tools 130, 140, 150, distance between the respective material 110, 120 and at least some of the processing tools 130, 140, 150, operating conditions of at least some of the processing tools 130, 140, 150, number of other materials 111, 121 already waiting for respective processing tools 130, 140, 150, and/or expected duration of processing steps .
• the means 111, 121 generally may be formed by any suitable hardware and software.
• the software means comprise JAVA applets running on the hardware.
• JAVA enables "write once, run anywhere"
• JAVA classes, beans, and applets are modular so that small applets can be downloaded when needed.
• a further advantage of using JAVA applets is that the security demands may be met.
• the ability to improve a software module and distribute it throughout the factory or throughout factories is a powerful tool in reducing software development cycle times and in decreas- ing the dependence on external software windows with proprietary CIM implementations.
• JAVA libraries and virtual ma- chines exist for all important operating systems and platforms.
• JAVA enabled browsers can be installed on all platforms.
• employees "brows" the materials to be processed and the processing tools re- motely to gain accessed to performance and to help with corrective action, if necessary.
• the modularity of JAVA applets allows small teams of software developers to generate code which can be distributed quickly without disrupting the operation of the manufacturing system and the factory, respectively. In theory, once an applet is tested on one piece of equipment for functionality, it can be distributed across remaining equipment with minimal risk.
• the processing tools 130, 140, 150 for directly exchanging information with the means assigned to said materials 110, 120, comprise hardware and software means 131, 141, 151.
• the software preferably comprises JAVA applets running on the hardware.
• the manufacturing system in accordance with the present invention may comprise a JAVA applet server 160.
• a database 165 may be provided, directly accessible by said means 111, 121 and/or by said processing tools 130, 140, 150 for reading and writing data.
• This data may comprise process flow and material information.
• the materials to be processed are wafers 110,
• the processing tools are wafer processing tools 130, 140, 150
• the manufacturing system further comprises pods 112, 122 for transferring said wafers 110, 120 to be processed between said wafer processing tools 130, 140, 150.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a manufacturing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
• the materials to be processed are wafer lots 110, 120.
• pods 112, 122 For transferring the wafer lots between wafer processing tools 130, 140, 150, there are provided pods 112, 122. These pods for example may be FOUPs generally known in the art.
• the means 111, 121 comprise radio communication means 113, 123 for directly exchanging the information with said wafer processing tools 130, 140, 150 via radio links 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175.
• the BLUETOOTH protocol may for example be used for these radio links 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175.
• the means 111, 121 comprise suitable hardware and software for deciding on the basis of the directly exchanged information which of the wafer processing tools 130, 140, 150 is supposed to process the respective wafer lot 110, 120.
• the software may comprise JAVA applets downloaded from a JAVA server 160 via suitable radio links 180, 182.
• the JAVA server 160 also serves the wafer processing tools 130, 140, 150 which are equipped with suitable hardware and software means for directly exchanging information with the pods 112, 122.
• the JAVA applets may be downloaded from the JAVA server 160 to the processing tools 130, 140, 150 via suitable links, preferably radio links.
• suitable links preferably radio links.
• FIG. 1 there is further provided a database 165.
• the pods 112, 122 are capable of exchanging data with this database 165 via respective radio links 190, 192.
• the wafer processing tools 130, 140, 150 are also capable of exchanging information with said database 165. For the sake of clarity only one link 191 between the wafer processing tool 150 and the database 165 is shown.
• FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example for a direct information exchange between means assigned to a material to be processed and processing tools and for de- ciding which of the processing tools is supposed to process a respective material.
• the preceding process step is complete and the next processing tool has to be selected.
• the blocks 202 through 204 it is checked whether the tools 1 through n are up.
• block 206 it is checked which of the up tools are running the desired process.
• block 207 it is checked which of the up tools has the smallest number of lots waiting to be processed by the respective tool.
• block 208 it is checked which tool is closest to the lot to be processed.
• the decision is made which of said processing tools is supposed to process the respective lot.
• the respective wafer lot may be stored in a suitable temporary storage buffer, as indicated by block 210.
• the decision tree in accordance with FIG. 2 may be extended to a plurality of processing tools and to a plurality of decision criteria. While the invention has been described in terms of particular structures, devices and methods, those of skill in the art will understand based on the description herein that it is not limited merely to such examples and that the full scope of the invention is properly determined by the claims that follow.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
• General Factory Administration (AREA)
• Multi-Process Working Machines And Systems (AREA)

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Publications (2)

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Citations (4)

• 2001
  • 2001-11-19 EP EP01983588A patent/EP1373996A2/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2001-11-19 WO PCT/EP2001/013407 patent/WO2002071167A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2001-11-19 CN CNA018192475A patent/CN1478221A/zh active Pending
  • 2001-11-19 JP JP2002570024A patent/JP2004519055A/ja active Pending
  • 2001-11-20 TW TW090128738A patent/TW561324B/zh not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (4)

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