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US 7,680,556 B2Granted
Method for data collection during manufacturing processes
AssigneeTECH Semiconductor Singapore Pte Ltd
InventorsBoon Hong Sim, Ping Zhou
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention discloses a new data collection method employed by a middle layer between the host and the equipment, which improves the speed and consistency of data collection. The middle layer incorporated with the proposed data collection method functions as a data format converter as well as a data processor/classifier, which helps to filter and format messages before delivering data to the host or equipment. The proposed data collection method enables the middle layer to perform local reply, local data sampling, and group data polling, thus relieving processing resources of both the equipment and the host. This allows implementation of APC on older wafer fabrication processes using old equipment.
Claims45
A method for collecting data from a plurality of processing equipment comprising:
- receiving from a host system a definition of sampling groups wherein said definition of each sampling group comprises a listing of equipment status variables for a piece of processing equipment, a sampling or polling rate, and a message destination;
- receiving from a host system a request to collect data for one or more of said sampling groups;
- and
- thereafter, for each sampling group in said request, at said sampling or polling rate:
- formatting a request for said data;
- sending said formatted request to said piece of processing equipment;
- thereafter receiving said data from said piece of processing equipment;
- formatting said data received;
- and
- sending said formatted data to said message destination.
7 more elements
A semiconductor fabrication process control system comprising:
- at least one host system which can request data and other information from at least one piece of processing equipment;
- and
- an enhanced software protocol converter performing the functions:
- receiving from said at least one host system a definition of sampling groups wherein said definition of each sampling group comprises a listing of equipment status variables for a piece of processing equipment, a sampling or polling rate, and a message destination;
- receiving from said at least one host system a request to start collecting data for a particular sampling group wherein said request to start collecting data for a particular sampling group results in preparing sampling requests to be sent to said piece of processing equipment at said sampling or polling rate;
- receiving from said at least one host system a request to stop collecting data for a particular sampling group wherein said request to stop collecting data for a particular sampling group results in ceasing to prepare sampling requests to be sent to said piece of processing equipment;
- and
- for each said sampling group for which a request to start collecting data has been received and for which a request to stop collecting data has not been received, at said sampling or polling rate:
- converting said sampling request into a format suitable for said at least one piece of processing equipment;
- sending said formatted sampling request to said at least one piece of processing equipment;
- receiving data from said at least one piece of processing equipment;
- converting said data from said at least one piece of processing equipment into a format suitable for said at least one host system;
- and
- sending said formatted data to said at least one host system.
11 more elements
A computer program product comprising:
- a computer readable code means residing on a computer, said means causing said computer to communicate data between a plurality of devices in a process control system, said computer readable code means in said computer program product comprising:
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to receive data collection requests from a plurality of host systems;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to format said data collection requests for a plurality of processing equipment;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to send said formatted said data collection requests to said plurality of processing equipment;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to receive data collection results from said plurality of processing equipment;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to format said data collection results for said plurality of host systems;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to send said formatted said data collection results to said plurality of host systems;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to receive primary messages from said plurality of processing equipment;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to send said primary messages to each of a list of applications interested in said primary messages;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to check if each of said primary messages has an auto-reply option turned on;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to format each of said primary messages into a format suitable for each of said interested applications;
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to set to zero a reply bit in each of said formatted messages before sending said formatted messages to said interested applications;
- and
- computer readable program code means causing said computer to send an auto-reply message to said processing equipment for each of said messages having said auto-reply option turned on.
11 more elements
A method for local data sampling comprising:
- a) receiving from a host system a request to collect data on a piece of processing equipment for a data sampling group;
- b) formatting a request for said data;
- c) sending said formatted request to said piece of processing equipment;
- d) thereafter receiving said data from said piece of processing equipment;
- e) formatting said data received;
- f) sending said formatted data to said host system at a requested time interval;
- and
- g) repeating steps c through f
- until a defined number of data sets have been sent to said host system or until receiving from said host system a request to stop data sampling for said data sampling group.
6 more elements
A method for group data polling comprising:
- receiving from a host system a request to collect data on a piece of processing equipment for one or more data sampling groups;
- for each data sampling group for which a request to stop collecting data has not been received:
- a) formatting a request for said data;
- b) sending said formatted request to said piece of processing equipment;
- c) thereafter receiving said data from said piece of processing equipment and classifying said received data into said data sampling groups;
- d) formatting said data received;
- e) sending said formatted data to said host system at a requested time interval;
- and
- f) repeating steps b through e
- until a defined number of data sets have been sent to said host system or until receiving from said host system a request to stop data sampling for said all of said data sampling groups.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.