Enhancement of semiconductor equipment communications using a web-enabled equipment driver
Journal
IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing
Journal Volume
14
Journal Issue
4
Pages
372-380
Date Issued
2001
Author(s)
Cheng, F. T.
Abstract
Equipment communications are essential for semiconductor manufacturing automation. Equipment managers generally function to communicate between the manufacturing execution system (MES) and equipment. Connecting a different machine to the equipment manager requires modifying the associated equipment driver (ED) accordingly, which needs some efforts. To solve this problem, this study proposes a novel, web-enabled equipment driver (WED) that uses mobile object technology. Initially, a mobile object model with a Java applet, namely WED, is developed. WED is constructed on the equipment (server) side. Then, the equipment manager (client) downloads WED via a web browser. This process does not need to modify ED. Subsequently, the equipment manager can communicate with the equipment by either the Java socket technology using the high-speed SECS message services (HSMS) standard or the object web technology through the common object request broker architecture (CORBA) or distributed component object model (DCOM) protocols using the object-based equipment model (OBEM) standard. This proposed scheme has been successfully implemented. Illustrative examples reveal that the proposed mobile object model and WED establish a novel, efficient, and versatile scheme for semiconductor equipment communications.
SDGs
Type
journal article