Industry News, Trends and Technology, and Standards Updates

I have fond memories as a kid spending Saturdays working on the family cars with my dad. We would dive in to taking things apart and putting them back together again. Whatever the problem was we could figure it out and fix it. With cars from the 1960s and 1970s, there wasn’t too much risk with this approach to car repair. Today, I still like to do my own car repairs when I can. But cars nowadays are far more complicated and compact. I have learned that I can’t just jump in and wing it with any hope of getting it done right or in a timely manner. My experience has taught me to rely on the experience of others, learn from their lessons and save myself from late nights asking, “what have I gotten myself into?”

Cimetrix CIM300^TM tool kit out of the box has already implemented a lot of the GEM 300 work for you. Notice I said “a lot” and not “all” of the work for you. To complete your GEM 300 application, your software will have to integrate with CIM300. The GEM 300 standards can be quite complex and some of the scenarios have intricate details. CIM300 provides a rich set of APIs and callbacks to help you implement a compliant GEM 300 solution. The key to success is knowing how to use the APIs and callbacks for the different GEM 300 scenarios.

The SEMI E87 Carrier Id Status state model, pictured below, is just one of many state models defined in the GEM 300 standards.

Figure 1 CARRIER ID STATUS STATE MODEL

There are several transitions in this state model and intricate conditions that determine which transition should be triggered. CIM300 supports this state model, but it requires interaction with your application to know which transition to make in the state model. In my experience, most people handle the happy path scenarios correctly, whether they're “winging it” or had formal training. However, I have rarely seen people handle the error scenarios correctly, without training on GEM 300 and CIM300. While understandable, error scenarios are often hard to follow and the implementation differences are subtle. The risk of doing it wrong in the software will execute the wrong transition in the state model, which in turn sends the incorrect event to the GEM host. The wrong event could really mess things up for the host. In both the happy path and error scenarios, the CIM300 API to call is the same:

CMSLib::CCxE87CMS::CarrierAtPort

However, how you specify the parameters to the call, it is different for each scenario. The differences in how you call the API will trigger different transitions in the state model. Our documentation for this one API call alone is longer than this entire blog post. That is how important it is to get it right. In addition to our product documentation, Cimetrix also provides CIM300 training and sample applications illustrating how to use our products.

I strongly recommend taking advantage of our CIM300 training. Training is the best first step to integrating CIM300 with your tool application. Training is typically a week long and provides an overview of the GEM 300 standards as well as hands-on experience using CIM300. The goal for Cimetrix in training is that by the end of the week-long training, clients have completed an implementation of a GEM 300 happy path scenario. That is, you receive hands-on experience using CIM300 to implement carrier verification (SEMI E87), creating and running a process job (SEMI E40) and control job (SEMI E94), tracking substrates (SEMI E90), and tracking equipment performance (SEMI E116).

Make sure you also leverage the sample applications that accompany CIM300. The sample applications provided with CIM300 give a jumpstart on integrating CIM300 with your own application. You can use the sample application as a reference for how to use our APIs and callbacks, copy/paste portions of the code into your own code, or use our application as a starting point for your own software. If you’re like me, you like having working source code you can refer to for concrete examples of how to do things and to see how things should work together.

If you dive right in and start implementing CIM300 without training or mentoring from an expert, you may find yourself spending a lot of late nights asking yourself, “what have I gotten myself into?” A little training goes a long way in simplifying the implementation!

Find out more about CIM300 or request a Technical Product Overview and/or Product Demo today!

The Interface A / EDA standards define powerful methods for collecting data from an equipment control application. The data collection can be as simple as querying values of a parameter or two, or as complex as gathering thousands of parameter values across multiple reports. EDA specifies the use of internet standard messaging protocols like HTTP, XML and SOAP messages for collecting this data.

It is possible to define so many data collection plans gathering so much data that the sheer amount of data causes network performance to degrade. To remedy this situation, the EDA standards provide ways of sending the data in “chunks,” which dramatically improves the performance of XML over HTTP.

Two methods for sending data in chunks are grouping and buffering.

Grouping

Grouping only applies to individual Trace Requests within a Data Collection Plan (DCP).  If I have a trace request with an interval of one second, a group size of 1 would generate a report every second and send it across the wire. If I change my group size to 10, a report would still be generated every second, but the report would not be sent across the wire until 10 reports have accumulated. Each report has its own timestamp and they are arranged in the order they occur. The following diagram shows a trace data collection report with a group size of 3.

Buffering

Buffering is different from grouping in that the buffer interval (in minutes) applies to an entire DCP rather than individual trace requests within that plan. For example, if I have a DCP with three trace requests and two event requests defined with a buffer interval of 1 (meaning one minute), the trace reports would still be generated at the specified trace interval. Event reports would be generated as the events are triggered. The reports are not sent to the EDA client until the buffer interval expires. At that point, all the data reports that were generated within that buffer interval time are packaged and sent to the EDA client.

Combining Grouping and Buffering

Grouping and buffering can be combined as well. Groups are still defined on a per trace basis. If a group size has not been met when the buffer interval expires, the group report will be in the next buffer report that is sent.

Summary

With the provision for transmitting data in blocks, using grouping for trace data reports and/or buffering for all data reports, EDA is well suited for collecting large amounts of data without having a negative effect on network performance.  

Creating a great company culture isn’t easy. You have to think about hiring the right team members, creating processes everyone can support, promoting an open environment with respect for everyone and without judgement, and fostering a sense of accountability. The Cimetrix Leadership team is always looking for ways to improve the company culture and develop an environment of trust and great communication. Giving everyone a voice and making sure everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts is key to employee engagement and maintaining a great culture.

When many members of the team work remotely, however, a great culture can be difficult to form, maintain and share. Remote employees spend most of their time working without seeing the other members of their team face-to-face.  While there are teams that travel frequently between the global offices, it is a rare opportunity to gather the entire company to work, learn and grow together. By meeting in person, our teams can create a sense of personal connection and trust that carries on long after returning to the remote office.  That’s just what Cimetrix did by organizing our 2017 All Company Gathering.

With the theme of “Growth – Business and Personal”, we started the week getting inspired to focus on each individual’s personal and professional growth. We learned about goal setting, reasons many fail to meet goals and a few secrets on how to make and keep effective goals. We were reminded that it’s important to recognize each other and ourselves when great things are achieved. Cimetrix recognized Crystal Glenn, Client Relations Specialist, for her outstanding contributions above and beyond her daily workload in the form of the Cimetrix Super Charged Award – an award that is rarely given and only to those who display the highest achievement in keeping with company values.

The next day began with a very interesting discussion led by the individual Country Managers from China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea about the direction of the company, the international growth achieved in 2017 and  the growth expected over the next few years. A panel discussion including Q&A was highly engaging and fun as everyone got to know the Country Managers and their respective cultures a little better.  A team building experience at a series of escape rooms followed by a discussion and analysis of leadership, teams and communication gave everyone the chance to get to know each other better and work together in a new capacity.

After a morning of working in teams, day three was dedicated to learning how to more efficiently use our time, specifically with regards to meetings. Everyone knows that unproductive meetings can be a drain on time and resources, but all too often we sit through too many of them anyway. Learning when to have meetings and how to make them as effective as possible is a skill that everyone should learn, and we look forward to implementing these new processes at Cimetrix. The evening brought a banquet dinner where we were privileged to hear from Mike Thompson, a shareholder, board member and great friend to Cimetrix.

The All Company Gathering ended Friday afternoon with a company meeting recapping all that happened during the week and a celebration for birthdays, anniversaries and new employees. Interspersed throughout the week were opportunities to get to know employees from different departments and different parts of the world.  Many continued to meet into the weekend for more in-depth training and education. 

The All Company Gathering requires weeks of organization and planning, but in the end, it’s worth the effort to bring the teams together for a few days as we seek to get to know each other better, build trust between team members, have discussions about company culture and core values and improve teamwork skills.  Good relationships are key to maintaining a successful company culture, and the entire Cimetrix team enjoyed this time to recharge and reenergize.

Join us as we meet the Leadership Team of Cimetrix in our “Meet the Team” series.

Alan Weber is currently the Vice President, New Product Innovations for Cimetrix. Previously he served on the Board of Directors for eight years before joining the company as a full-time employee in 2011. He has been a part of the semiconductor and manufacturing automation industries for over 40 years. He spent eight of those years as a Program Manager for SEMATECH, 18 as an Engineering Manager at Texas Instruments, and nearly 10 years as President of his own company, Alan Weber & Associates, Inc. Weber holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Rice University.  

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What brought you to Cimetrix originally?

I first met Bob Reback in the early 90s when he was working at Thesis, one of the leading semiconductor automation software companies at the time, and I was at Sematech, the research consortium tasked with charting a collaborative path to success for domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry. We were both at one of the early Advanced Process Control conferences, and as we talked, it was clear we shared not just a few interesting days in Dallas, but compatible visions for our respective organizations, basic value systems, and a genuine enthusiasm for working in this domain. We stayed in touch thereafter, crossing paths a few times over the next decade. When Bob took over the reins at Cimetrix and needed to re-populate the Board of Directors with industry expertise, he thought of me… and in 2002 I joined the Board.

Eight years later, after getting to know the entire management and technical team, we all agreed that working inside the company would be an ideal match, and I joined Dave Faulkner’s Marketing department.

What's your favorite thing about working here?

One aspect of the job here I especially enjoy is having a broad set of long-range objectives and the freedom to pursue them as I see fit. This works well both for me and Cimetrix because the current job requirements and my skills and experience are very well aligned.

What do you think makes a great VP of New Product Innovation?

A large part of this role requires an understanding of the technology and market trends that affect our industry, so it’s important to have sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge to see the big picture and spot these trends. International experience is also key, since the industries we serve are increasingly global.

Do you have a favorite quote/saying? Why?

I have favorite sayings for lots of situations, but I suppose the one that’s universally applicable is “Live every day.” This helps me find joy and gratitude in almost everything I do.

How do you deal with challenges that come up in your work life?

I first step back and ask myself the question “What’s the best use of my time right now?” and see if the answer helps me decide what to do next to address a particular challenge.

If that doesn’t work, I ask another question: “What’s the absolute worst thing that could happen in this situation, and what impact would that have?” Then I assess the likelihood of this actually happening… which is usually very small. From this perspective, the fear of imagined negative consequences evaporates, and I can focus on the problem objectively without the emotional distractions.

If that still doesn’t work, I ask myself “How would Mac have handled this?” He was my mentor for many of the years I worked at Texas Instruments, and never seemed to get ruffled by any challenge that would arise… and there were plenty of examples to draw from.

What do you like to do in your free time?

First of all, I don’t believe there is such a thing as “free time.” We all get the same 24 hours a day to work with, and they are all equally valuable! That being said, I enjoy a variety of activities outside the office.

My wife of 40 years, Kathy Allen-Weber, and I enjoy travelling together, whether it’s visiting family in Texas, friends across the U.S. and Europe, or ticking global destinations off of our “bucket list.”

Music has been a big part of my life since I was very young. I sing and play guitar on the worship team at our church, perform with local choral groups whenever possible, and still play the flute from time to time. Kathy and I also like many genres of classical music, and are especially fond of opera.

I also like being outdoors, and Utah’s climate and scenery are ideal for this. I also still play a little tennis, and have recently taken up pickleball!

What's the best thing that's happened to you in your time working at Cimetrix?

One of the best things that happened to us over the last five years was the move to Utah. Both being Texas natives, Kathy and I weren't sure how quickly Utah would feel like home, and were pleasantly surprised to find it was almost immediate. Moreover, moving from a big city (Austin) to a small town environment was like taking a 30-year step back in time—a refreshing transition at this point in our lives.

Join us as we meet the Leadership Team of Cimetrix in our “Meet the Team” series.

Dave Faulkner joined Cimetrix in August 1996 and serves as the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing and serves on the Board of Directors. Prior to Cimetrix, Faulkner was employed from 1986 to 1996 as the Manager of PLC Marketing, Manager of Automotive Operations, and District Sales Manager for GE Fanuc Automation, a global supplier of factory automation computer equipment specializing in programmable logic controllers, factory software, and computer numerical controls. He earned a bachelor's in Electrical Engineering and a MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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What brought you to Cimetrix originally?

I worked for GE for 18 years and was constantly moving to new locations and new jobs.  It was a fabulous education in business and large company dynamics.  I had the chance to work in every major industry focused on automation.  Especially interesting was the car manufacturing industry.  It was also the time when Jack Welch ran GE so I learned from his leadership styles.  But big companies are hard to impact, cause change and make your own way.  When I turned 40 it was time for a change. A GE friend introduced me to Bob Reback and then next thing I knew my family was moving to Utah to join a small company on a journey to introduce PC based control for robotics. I was interested in this same topic at GE, so it was right up my alley. 

What's your favorite thing about working here?

I get the chance to work with companies and people all over the world.  Learning to do business in Europe, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and across the U.S. brings new challenges and fantastic people.  Every country/place is unique and I love trying to understand the motivations and customs of business in each country.  The more I know, the more I realize I don’t know. We have fabulous employees in each of these locations and learning from them is inspirational.  In addition to our international set of customers, think of the international make-up in our company.  We have employees from China, Vietnam, Japan, Russia, India, Korea, France, and even Texas.  At Cimetrix, we can learn so much about the world.

What do you think makes a great account manager and salesperson?

I think this has to do with walking in our customer’s shoes, not selling them something.  Most of our customers have been our business partners and friends for 10 years or longer.  As an account manager, you have to understand how to make your customers successful both professionally and personally.  The revenue comes to us with this attitude.  While the account manager may lead the charge, this thinking permeates the company which is why we have so many long-term customers.  Heck, we have customers that come join us as employees!

Do you have a favorite quote / saying? Why?

I don’t, but I do search out a new quote every day.  It makes me think.  It makes me laugh.  Once a month, I find one that really hits home and I send it off to family and friends.  Einstein had some good ones.

How do you deal with challenges that come up in your work life?

I actually like a good crisis.  It stops you in your tracks and makes you think about how you got there.  What process needs work, why did I make an error, and how can I remain calm and think through the options.  Don’t let emotions take control, do the right thing, and do it quickly. Easy to say, hard to do.  Challenges are such learning experiences.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I’m somewhat of a speed demon.  I like to do things that involve speed.  Full speed on ice hockey skates, snow skiing in and out of bounds, full bore across the wake on a slalom ski, corners on my motorcycle, and my right foot might be a bit heavy in the car.  Those are my adrenalin outlets. My calming time will find me in a national park, on a river with a fly rod, enjoying a cup of strong coffee in a kayak, or being a plumber or tiler.  What can I learn next?

What's the best thing that's happened to you in your time working at Cimetrix?

Being part of building a great company.  We have something really special here at Cimetrix.  It took a lot of work by our whole team over the last 25 years.  Being part of that will be with me forever.  And the best is yet to come. Priceless.

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As predicted, Cimetrix had a very busy and fruitful week (September 11-15) in Taiwan. In addition to hosting numerous customers, prospects, and friends at our booth, Cimetrix made multiple technical presentations focused on Smart Manufacturing, both at the show and at the eMDC Conference in Hsinchu. Two of these were jointly presented with Mark Reath of GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Use the links at the bottom of this post if you’d like a copy of this material.

In addition to our participation in these technical events, Cimetrix demonstrated the new Cimetrix EDATester™ product to a number of factory customers who now need a validated method for verifying incoming equipment compliance to the SEMI Equipment Data Acquisition (EDA) suite of standards. The timing for this product is ideal, based on the increased rate of adoption for these standards we have seen in Taiwan. 

Given the industry’s current momentum and near-term outlook, the mood in Taiwan is overwhelmingly positive, and the trade show almost had a celebratory quality to it. Fittingly, the Leadership Gala Dinner held Wednesday night was a feast for all the senses, from the food to the entertainment to the array of dignitaries who attended. 

For the second year in a row, President Tsai attended and expressed her gratitude for the industry’s role in advancing the quality of life across the nation and her administration’s unwavering support for its continued prosperity. Dr. Nicky Lu, one of Taiwan’s well-known business and technology icons, was honored with the industry’s most prestigious Leadership Award, and shared his personal perspective on some of the exciting semiconductor-enabled products now in the works. 

Dr. Lu went into even more depth about semiconductor technology evolution in his keynote address for the eMDC Conference (Joint Symposium of e-Manufacturing & Design Collaboration Symposium 2017 and ISSM 2017) on Friday, outlining a powerful vision that he’s labelled as “HIDAS: Heterogeneous Integrated Design/Architecture/System for Silicon-Centric Nano-System in Si4.0” – if you want to know more, you’ll want to contact him directly!

All in all, is was a great week to be in Taiwan, especially since Typhoon Talim decided to take a turn to the north without dampening the spirit of SEMICON. Please contact us with any questions, and we look forward to seeing you at future industry events.

Device Scaling vs. Process Control Scaling: Advanced Sensorization Closes the Gap

Smarter Manufacturing through Equipment Data-Driven Application Design

Smart Manufacturing Requirements for Equipment Capability and Control

The definition for a traditional dashboard is fairly simple—“the panel facing the driver of a vehicle or the pilot of an aircraft, containing instruments and controls”—and well understood by anyone with much time behind the wheel.

However, information technology dashboards in a business context take a few more words to describe. From Wikipedia, “dashboards often provide at-a-glance views of KPIs (key performance indicators) relevant to a particular objective or business process (e.g., sales, marketing, human resources, or production).” An example of such a dashboard for a single manufacturing process follows.

Although only recently popularized by commercial BI (business intelligence) software packages, dashboard-style display technology has been around a long time. Specifically, the PLC (programmable logic controller) industry saw early on that the PC (personal computer) was an ideal user interface platform for machine operators, providing what most would call today an interactive “dashboard” for a piece of equipment or portion of a manufacturing process. PLCs were originally designed as solid-state replacements for the relay panels used for sequence control for small- to medium-sized manufacturing equipment of limited complexity. Over time, they grew in sophistication to include PID (proportional, integral, differential) control capabilities for unit processes across a wide range of industries, and became a vital component of major manufacturing facilities worldwide.

Despite the number of vendors that provided PLCs and the variety of applications they supported, all PLCs shared a common internal architectural feature called an “image register,” which is a section of memory that contains the process and state variables representing the complete status of the machine at any moment. Even though there were initially no industry standards that dictated the exact structure of an image register, they were similar enough that a basic PLC-specific driver was sufficient to map any PLC’s image register into the standard widgets of a dashboard-style operator interface, providing real-time display of process status and sometimes interactive control capabilities. One of the most successful such packages was the Wonderware InTouch software product, shown below in a batch process context.

Until recently, the lack of standardization in the embedded control system architectures for semiconductor manufacturing equipment made the implementation of equipment-oriented factory-level dashboards fairly challenging. However, with the advent of the SEMI EDA (Equipment Data Acquisition) standards and, in particular, the increasing fidelity of the equipment models required by these standards, all that has changed. Especially for equipment suppliers who follow the SEMI E164 (EDA Common Metadata) standard, the structure and content of the embedded equipment model are sufficient to provide direct access to most of the parameters and events you’d expect to find in a dashboard. Displaying some equipment KPI's, such as OEE, may require a little additional calculation and perhaps some minimal user input, but the most of information needed to compute these metrics is readily available.

For example, if you want to see the list of jobs active on a piece of equipment, look no further than the JobManager logical element of the metadata model (see below*).

If you want to display the material status of a piece of equipment—for example the carriers, lots, and substrates that are present—the MaterialManager logical element contains all of this information.

To display the current performance status and recent history of the major equipment modules, use the state information and reason codes in the SEMI E116 (Equipment Performance Tracking) EPTTracker logical elements to achieve this objective.

Recipe execution status information for each module capable of processing material is found in the ModuleProcess state machine within the relevant Process Chamber.

And finally, if you want to show the current operations status of the equipment as a whole, this information is found in the GEM variables present in the metadata model.

You can see from the above examples that despite the lack of standardization in the embedded equipment controller architectures across the semiconductor industry, the information needed in equipment level dashboards is directly provided by the industry standards that define the EDA interfaces. This provides yet another use case for factories to drive for the adoption of these standards.

In addition to the standardized data access, another feature of EDA that makes it ideal for dashboard implementation is its multi-client capability. The software implementing a factory-level dashboard can communicate with many pieces of equipment at once, since the data volume required from any single equipment is small. From the equipment point of view, the dashboard system would appear as a separate client from the other application client(s) with more intense data collection requirements. This separation of clients also means that the dashboard content can be changed easily, since this is accomplished by modifying the relevant DCPs (data collection plans) rather than changing the data collection application itself.

Last but not least, since SEMI E164 standardizes the actual event and parameter names in the metadata model, the DCPs that collect this information can be programmatically generated and activated for all the equipment that is E164-compliant. This represents a significant engineering cost reduction over the conventional methods used to identify, collect, and manage the information required to animate a real-time dashboard.

This article is the fifth in the series recently announced in the Models in Smart Manufacturing Series Introduction posting – be sure to watch for at least one more posting that wraps up this overall theme.

We look forward to your feedback and to sharing the Smart Manufacturing journey with you.

*The visualizations of equipment metadata model fragments are those produced by the Cimetrix ECCE Plus product (EDA Client Connection Emulator).

Join us as we meet the Leadership Team of Cimetrix in our “Meet the Team” series.

Bill Grey holds the title of Distinguished Software Engineer at Cimetrix. He joined Cimetrix in 1999 and has filled multiple roles since that time. Grey has been developing software for more than 25 years in a variety of industries including Philips Broadcast Television Systems, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and the U.S. Geological Survey. He specializes in Windows software development, Scrum/Agile development, software architecture, software processes, and the software life cycle.

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What Brought you to Cimetrix originally?

I had been working at Philips Electronics  when they shut down their division in Salt Lake City. Cimetrix was looking for a programmer to bring Windows programming into Cimetrix and I was able to fulfill that role

What's your favorite thing about working here?

Basically the people. The Cimetrix team is respectful, intelligent, honest and hardworking. As a group they follow the Cimetrix values and everyone is always willing to help each other.

What do you think makes a great software engineer?

You never "know everything" because the practice changes so quickly so it's important to have perseverance and the ability to learn.

What was the most interesting technical challenge that you’ve worked on at Cimetrix?

The most interesting technical challenge was our CIM300 product. It took many iterations of the SEMI standards over several years before the standards matured enough to be widely adopted. Dealing with different interpretations of gray areas of the standards, as well as industry requirements that were “more open” than the standards specified was a real challenge.

What is the next engineering project that you want to work on?

There are two interesting engineering projects I'd like to work on. The first is Requirements Engineering. Companies must cement how requirements are defined for new products and new product features. Processes, roles and responsibilities, and even education are required for the teams tackling Requirements Engineering. As we do a better job at defining requirements, more time will have to be spent in that phase. However, in the long run, it will reduce the amount of rework done, which is one of the biggest wastes of time in technology companies.

The second project is built-in product diagnostics. Being able to build into all our products self-diagnostics and potentially self-healing, the support team would see their workload reduced and of course it enables the customer to solve any issues without having to turn to outside help.

How do you deal with challenges that come up in your work life?

I tend to tackle thing from both sides.  I like to surround my problems and make them submit.  I like to work at the highest level for a bit, until some ideas start to come out, then I'll dive all the way through the solution to the bottom levels.  Somewhere in-between is the solution waiting to surrender

What do you like to do in your free time?

My hobby is hobbies. I have way too many to list from blacksmithing to guitars to woodworking. I change so often that I am truly a man of many talents and a master of none.

What's the best thing that's happened to you in your time working at Cimetrix?

I met my wife...I think that sums it up pretty well!

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Join us as we meet the Leadership Team of Cimetrix in our “Meet the Team” series.

David Francis—Director of Project Management—has worked in the semiconductor industry for more than 26 years providing software and services in manufacturing automation. Prior to joining Cimetrix in 2010, Francis worked as an Engineering Manager at Applied Materials from 2007 to 2008, as both the Director of Product Engineering and the APF Product Manager at Brooks Automation from 2000 to 2007, and as the Director of Operations at Auto-Soft Corporation from 1993 to 1996. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Utah and an MBA from the University of Utah – David Eccles School of Business.

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What brought you to Cimetrix originally?

I knew Bob Reback from back in the early days of my career. I was doing equipment integration services for Motorola in Austin, TX using the products Bob was selling. Years later I worked with Mike Thompson, who sits on the Cimetrix board, for many years when he was at AutoSimulations/Brooks Automation. Mike connected me with Bob again and it was a good fit.

What's your favorite thing about working here?

Without a doubt, it’s the people. I really love the people I work with here at Cimetrix. It also doesn’t hurt that it is a pretty exciting technology field that is enabling the manufacturing of all our new electronic gadgets.

What do you think makes a great Engineering Manager?

I think a great engineering manager is someone that can inspire developers to be creative and look for new ways to improve the products they work on while also establishing the discipline necessary to ensure consistent, high-quality products.

Do you have a favorite quote or saying? Why?

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” I think in today’s world everyone is too worried about being heard – we aren’t listening to others. Often the divide between two different viewpoints isn’t as wide as it first seems, but it takes communication and listening to get a true understanding so you can build a basis for coming together.

How do you deal with challenges that come up in your work life?

I am one who likes to talk things through. I like to get different perspectives on how problems can and should be handled.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I enjoy boating and waterskiing with my family. I also love to tinker and fix things – it’s like solving a puzzle.

What's the best thing that's happened to you in your time working at Cimetrix?

Being part of the management team working to define roles and responsibilities to position Cimetrix for healthy growth now and in the future.

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The week of September 11 will be a big one for Cimetrix in Taiwan. In addition to exhibiting at SEMICON Taiwan for the third year in a row (Booth # 2926) with our local partner, Flagship International, Cimetrix is privileged to be making joint technical presentations with GLOBALFOUNDRIES in two distinct events.

On Friday of that week, this same duo will present “Device Scaling vs. Process Control Scaling: Advanced Sensorization Closes the Gap” at the Ambassador Hotel in Hsinchu on September 15, at 08:30–16:40 (click on the “Program” link). This presentation discusses how GLOBALFOUNDRIES is addressing the need for precise fault detection and process control in the sub-10nm domain  through integration of high-speed, process-specific sensors using its EDA (Equipment Data Acquisition standard) infrastructure to deal seamlessly with complex data types (e.g., spectral data) and the context information necessary to use this information effectively.  The conference agenda features speakers and topics across a broad spectrum of the industry’s value chain, so the conference promises to be an exciting and well-attended event.

In addition to these technical events, Cimetrix will be demonstrating its new EDATester™ product at the booth along with its complete family of connectivity and equipment control products.

We invite our customers and colleagues to join us at all of these venues and hope to see you in Taiwan soon.