Integrated electronic hardware for wafer processing control and diagnostic

A circuit board for use in a semiconductor manufacturing equipment comprising:

• a stepper controller interface communicating with a Versa Modular European bus and a plurality of micro-controllers;
• a digital input and digital output interface communicating with a Versa Modular European bus and mapping said digital input and digital output in a Versa Modular European memory space;
• a first dual port memory communicating with a Versa Modular European bus and mapping an analog input and analog output in a Versa Modular European memory space;
• and
• a second dual port memory communicating with a Versa Modular European bus and an Optical Emission Spectrometer or Interferometer.

A method for controlling a plurality of sensors and a plurality of control hardware for use in a semiconductor manufacturing equipment comprises:

• loading an application software onto a cpu board;
• plugging said cpu board in a bus;
• linking the plurality of sensors and the plurality of control hardware to a plurality of controllers;
• mounting said plurality of controllers onto a single circuit board, said single circuit board occupying an address block in a memory space of said bus;
• plugging said single circuit board in said bus;
• and
• controlling the plurality of sensors and the plurality of control hardware via said application software.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions readable by the machine to perform a method for controlling a plurality of sensors and a plurality of control hardware for use in a semiconductor manufacturing equipment, the method comprising:

• loading an application software onto a cpu board;
• plugging said cpu board in a bus;
• linking the plurality of sensors and the plurality of control hardware to a plurality of controllers;
• mounting said plurality of controllers onto a single circuit board, said single circuit board occupying an address block in a memory space of said bus;
• plugging said single circuit board in said bus;
• and
• controlling the plurality of sensors and the plurality of control hardware via said application software.