System and method for electronically collecting data in a fabrication facility

A method for electronically collecting data in a process line of a semiconductor or data storage fabrication facility, comprising:

• collecting general process data through a SECS interface from a plurality of tools within the fabrication facility;
• sniffing data packets transmitted over a LAN by the plurality of tools;
• determining if the sniffed data packets are valid data packets;
• and
• parsing one or more data fragments from the valid data packets.

A computer readable medium having embodied thereon a computer program, the computer program being executable by a machine to perform method steps for collecting data in a process line of a semiconductor or data storage fabrication facility, the method comprising:

• collecting general process data through a SECS interface from a plurality of tools within the fabrication facility;
• sniffing data packets transmitted over a LAN by the plurality of tools;
• determining if the sniffed data packets are valid data packets;
• parsing one or more data fragments from the valid data packets;
• and
• storing the data fragments and the general process data into one or more data files.

A method for validating and parsing electronically collected data in a process line of a semiconductor or data storage fabrication facility, comprising:

• sniffing data packets transmitted over a LAN by a plurality of tools within the fabrication facility;
• determining if the sniffed data packets are valid data packets by
• checking the sniffed data packets for a proper Ethernet header length,
• checking if the sniffed data packets are TCP/IP, and
• verifying whether a signature of the sniffed data packets match a specification stored in a configuration file;
• parsing one or more data fragments from the valid data packets by
• parsing a process number,
• parsing a module number,
• parsing a module IP address, and
• verifying whether the module IP address matches a configuration file address;
• and
• storing the data fragments and the general process data into one or more data files.

A system for electronically collecting data in a process line of a semiconductor or data storage fabrication facility, comprising:

• a means for collecting process data, the data collection means coupled to a plurality of tools within the fabrication facility through a SECS interface, the SECS interface configured to receive general process data from the plurality of tools;
• the data collection means being further coupled to a LAN, the data collection means configured to sniff data packets transmitted over the LAN between the plurality of tools coupled to the LAN;
• the data collection means being further configured to determine if the sniffed data packets are valid data packets based on a configuration file established for the plurality of tools;
• the data collection means being further configured to parse one or more data fragments from the valid data packets;
• and
• a means for storing data configured to store the one or more data fragments and the general process data into one or more data files.

A system for electronically collecting data in a process line of a semiconductor or data storage fabrication facility, comprising:

• a data collection processing unit configured to sniff data packets transmitted over a LAN between a plurality of tools located in the fabrication facility and coupled to the LAN;
• the data collection processing unit being further configured to determine if the sniffed data packets are valid data packets based on a configuration file established for the plurality of tools;
• and
• the data collection processing unit being further configured to parse one or more data fragments from the valid data packets.

A method for electronically collecting data in a process line of a semiconductor or data storage fabrication facility, comprising:

• sniffing data packets transmitted over a LAN by a plurality of tools located in the fabrication facility;
• determining if the sniffed data packets are valid data packets;
• and
• parsing one or more data fragments from the valid data packets.