Software Architecture and Subclassing Technique for Semiconductor   Manufacturing Machines
  This paper proposed software architecture for operating an automatic semiconductor manufacturing machine. Recent machines for semiconductor process are required for high level of automation which are composed of motion control, machine vision, data acquisition and networking. These functions are executed through industrial equipments that are generally installed in a computer. The equipments occupy a great part of system resource and generate a lot of computation, so the software structure should be designed for efficiency. The proposed architecture is consisted of four layers and virtual equipments(VEs). The VEs are made by subclassing the physical equipments(PEs) and the layers are coded into thread which updates the status of VEs. Subroutines in a program refer to the pointer of VEs, and direct access to physical equipment are prohibited. The number of access (NOA) to PEs in typical industrial application was simulated for the unlimited access structure and the presented structure. The result showed that the proposed structure was more efficient than typical ones and irrespective of subroutines. This architecture was also applied to design a machine operating software and performed automatic wafer dicing. 
HyungTae Kim, HaeJeong Yang
cs.OH