Industry News, Trends and Technology, and Standards Updates

by Peggy Faulkner

Assistant Controller

Debits and credits.  Accruals, depreciation, amortization.  Terminology that cures insomnia for most, but also the nuts and bolts of keeping track of a company’s day-to-day operations and, ultimately, feedback on its state of health and a roadmap for strategic planning. 

As Cimetrix emerged from the economic downturn, management decided in mid- 2010 the time was right to upgrade the unsupported financial system used in daily operations and reporting.  The Great Plains system had been state-of-the-art when it was implemented, but in recent years was like an old family car driven for years, its better days behind, not able to deliver the performance or features of newer models.

Features, cost, implementation, and support analyses of several ERP systems led to management choice of an updated version of Great Plains, acquired by Microsoft in 2001.   As autumn days became crisp and short, the finance team experienced many things—anticipation...long hours scrubbing old files and laying groundwork... occasional frustration…trial and error….testing, more testing, and more testing—all hallmarks of implementing a new accounting system.  By January 1, 2011, a new era had dawned—we were live, and using our new financial system!  Since that “go live” date, new financial reports and delivery processes have been developed and implemented, giving executives and managers more comprehensive, efficient and varied details of operations for strategic planning. 

During the financial implementation process, it became evident that the integrated Project Accounting portion of Great Plains fell short in meeting Cimetrix' needs, and implementation of that portion of the project was delayed.  Instead of retrofitting a bad fit, CFO Jodi Juretich set out to find a more comprehensive Project Accounting package.  Demos and testing of potential Project Accounting software partners are currently underway, as is staging for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM (customer relationship management) integration.  The CRM integration will play a significant role in how we manage our relationships with customers, and ultimately leads to delivering higher quality service.

Also on the drawing board is a re-design of our website — which has always contained great information, but has been in its present format for many years, and would appreciate a makeover.

 As my friend Mr. Dylan once crooned, “Well, the times, they are a’changin’…”.

A’changin’ indeed.   Exciting times for us! 

by Brian Rubow
Quality Customer Support Manager

Equipment Data Acquisition (EDA), also known as Interface A, is a suite of SEMI standards developed to meet the demand for high-speed access to more and better process data.

The primary motivation for IC makers such as Intel and Samsung to implement EDA is the continued drive for productivity.  In order to ensure compatibility between semiconductor equipment companies and semiconductor manufacturers EDA implementations, ISMI and its member companies have initiated the concept of "freeze versions”.  A freeze version simply identifies a specific version of the EDA SEMI standards that ISMI members agree to use.  The freeze version concept has allowed EDA to be deployed while allowing the EDA standards to continue to be enhanced.

The industry has adopted the initial ISMI 1105 freeze version for over 5 years.  Recently, ISMI announced a new 0710 freeze version that specifies standards approved at the 2010 Spring SEMI standards meetings.  The 0710 standards take advantage of what the industry learned since the original freeze version with many improvements and some new capabilities. 

Equipment manufacturers developing systems to comply with the 1105 freeze version use Equipment Client Connection Emulator (ECCE) as reference client software to check their EDA solutions.  Manufacturers developing equipment to comply with the new 0710 version will use a new EDA Reference Client to exercise and verify the EDA functionality available in the equipment.  The new EDA Reference Client will be available from the Cimetrix web site by April 30, 2011.

If you would like more information about what is in the new freeze version, take a look at the November 30, 2010 e-Manufacturing workshop presentation on the ISMI web site:  

xby David Francis
Product Manager, Connectivity Products

Back in the 1990s, Joe Diffie released an album titled “Third Rock from the Sun.”  I have to admit I liked the title song, especially the chorus:

“Cause and effect, chain of events
All of the chaos makes perfect sense
When you're spinning round
Things come undone
Welcome to Earth 3rd rock from the Sun.”

At the time, I was working with Motorola in Austin developing host-side cell control applications for one of their new fabs.  Motorola had implemented some rudimentary equipment control and data collection in their older fabs, but the standards were loosely defined at that time and the equipment interfaces were inconsistent. We realized we could not replicate the work implemented in the old fabs into the new fabs, yet we did not have solid standards to use for the new fabs.  As the song said, we were “spinning round” in this chaos.

What eventually drove more clarification in the GEM/GEM300 standards was the industry-wide push to move to fully automated 300mm IC manufacturing.  The larger wafers offer much greater productivity and throughput, with significantly lower cost per die, and SEMI wanted to ensure the industry had a well-understood and approved interface standard for the equipment used to manufacture semiconductors on these much larger wafers.  Those new standards made it easier and more cost effective to create the host-side cell control applications.  Now the chaos started to “make perfect sense.”

Embracing the GEM/GEM300 standards allowed IC manufacturers to purchase standard software components to analyze manufacturing processes and identify opportunities to increase productivity.  In other words, they wanted to bring order to all the chaos.  The alternative – developing their own data analysis applications for each fab – would have been very expensive and time consuming.  SEMI brought order to the scene by offering the GEM/GEM300 standards that all the equipment vendors and fabs could use.  Now OEMs could develop equipment needed for automated wafer processing with the confidence fabs could install the machines and link them to their networks.  Fabs could increase throughput and drive down cost per die, and, just as important, gather data necessary to increase manufacturing efficiencies even more.

Fast forward twenty years, and we see a very similar situation, this time caused by the impressive growth in Photovoltaic cell and LED manufacturing.  The fabs in those industries need more advanced equipment to increase throughput and drive down unit costs in order to meet demand.  However, up to this date, both sectors are reluctant to adopt the GEM standards.  They are concerned those standards may be too big and complex for their processes, which are simpler than the current state-of-the-art semiconductor fab processes.  Once again, we see the chaos that occurs with explosive growth and companies seeking a solution to bring order to their processes.

Since I’ve seen this story before - and heard the music played time and time again - I know that adopting communication standards will help PV and LED manufacturers continue their drive to reduce unit costs and drive demand.  The effort is underway in the PV sector with the PV2 standard.  The LED sector should also look to adopt existing standards, or do what the PV sector has done and develop their own standards.  Either way, we know that standards help all the “chaos make perfect sense.”

By: Bill Grey
Director of R&D, Cimetrix Inc.

One of the hurdles people new to the semiconductor equipment industry need to overcome is learn how to establish a physical connection between the fab network and new equipment.  To help people, we have developed a primer to provide the foundation for how to do that.

The primer provides a background for SECS/GEM communication over HSMS by describing how to configure the connections, the terminology involved, troubleshooting, and common messages.

In a factory SECS/GEM implementation, there are two parties, the host, and equipment.  The equipment runs GEM interface software, which must implement and comply with the SEMI standards, on one of its computers.  The manufacturer (factory) runs GEM host software that establishes communication with the equipment's GEM interface.

The SECS Messaging Primer is a companion to the Introduction to the SECS/GEM standard white paper available on the Cimetrix SEMI Standards web page.  That white paper provides an overview of the SEMI SECS/GEM standard. 

by Dave Faulkner

Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing

Cimetrix Japan K.K. was officially incorporated on November 25, 2010.  The purpose of this new company is to demonstrate commitment to the Japanese OEM market, have a dedicated staff to grow Cimetrix business in cooperation with our distribution partners, and to provide even stronger customer support.  The company's directors will be Bob Reback, Dave Faulkner, Jodi Juretich and Kerry Iwamoto. 

The company will be managed by Mr. Kerry Iwamoto as General Manager and Representative Director.   Mr. Iwamoto started his association with Cimetrix as a customer when he worked for Innotech designing semiconductor process equipment.  Recently, he has worked for Cimetrix distributors CIM, ONC and Rorze.  Mr. Iwamoto brings a strong background in the semiconductor industry and Cimetrix products along with close relationships with existing Cimetrix customers in Japan.

Watch for more news as we launch Cimetrix Japan.

By Dave Faulkner

Executive VP, Sales and Marketing, Cimetrix

We had a strong showing at SEMICON Japan at the Makuhari Messe December 1 - 3.  Attendance was brisk, and Cimetrix products were on display at both the Meiden and the Rorze booths.  This event was a great opportunity for us, since we have just started Cimetrix Japan K.K. effective November 25, 2010.  The new Cimetrix company will provide both new market development and customer support for the Japan marketplace.

In the Meiden booth, Cimetrix EDA/Interface A products were on display.  In addition, Meiden highlighted the partnership between Meiden, DSD, and Cimetrix, which allows DSD and Meiden to offer complete EDA solutions using Cimetrix technology.  These solutions are available to both equipment suppliers and IC manufacturers, and Meiden listed the benefits and sample architectures for each group. 

 Cimetrix CIMControlFramework (CCF) was on display at the Rorze booth running a complete 450mm vacuum platform.  Many visitors stopped to watch this powerful demonstration.  Cimetrix products were also highlighted, along with Rorze’s unique ability to deliver a complete hardware/software platform solution for equipment suppliers using Rorze and Cimetrix technology. 

 One other highlight of the show was visiting the Axcelis booth where they highlighted their Integra plasma dry strip cleaning system that uses the Cimetrix CIMControlFramework. 

We also learned at the show that a new top 20 OEM in Japan would adopt Cimetrix connectivity products.  It is great to see how companies are using our solutions to get to their products up and running in wafer fabs around the world.

Thanks to all those people who stopped by the booths.  Please let us know if you need more information about Cimetrix connectivity or tool control solutions.

by David Francis
Product Manager

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to work with some large semiconductor companies, including, Intel, Motorola, Lucent, and Siltronic.  I developed interface acceptance tests for equipment they purchased.  At that time, the SEMI SECS/GEM standards were still new and not widely adopted.  Many of the tool vendors had little or no previous experience writing SECS/GEM interfaces, and they were often uncertain about the details of the standards, along with worrying about how they could comply with them.  Chief among the vendors’ concerns was how they could meet their design schedules without loading down their engineering teams with this new requirement placed upon them. 

Over the intervening years I worked in the scheduling and dispatching area of automated semiconductor manufacturing, and in that time I lost track of the SECS/GEM standards and their adoption by the wafer fabs.

Recently I joined Cimetrix as Product Manager for the connectivity and tool automation products, and now I am back in the world of SECS/GEM standards.  A lot has changed since those early years, as fabs moved from 200mm to 300mm, and now considering 450mm wafer fabrication.  In addition, the geometries have shrunk from 1 micron down to 40nm and below.  However, I still see many of the same industry concerns as I did many years ago, even though there has been little change to the SECS/GEM standards.

The real change I see is the wide spread adoption of the SECS/GEM standard.  Previously, only a few leading edge companies requested SECS/GEM interfaces on their tools and were working feverishly to set up host-side equipment controls.  Today, SECS/GEM is well rooted in 300mm semiconductor manufacturing and tool vendors have very mature automation interfaces.

The move to 300mm processing created an ideal opportunity for the development and adoption of the GEM300 standards. Building new 300mm tools created an ideal environment for designing in the GEM300 standards right from the start.

More recently, new standards, like Interface A, have emerged from their R&D phase and are now going through the same refining process that SECS/GEM went through a decade ago.  These new standards will continue to support the industry’s efforts to create more efficient devices, at ever-decreasing geometries, with increased reliability and yield quality.

It is exciting to be working with these standards again and looking at them from the other end of the wire – the tool-side as opposed to my previous fab-side experience.  I look forward to writing more about how the tool vendors are adopting, and demonstrating compliance, to the new standards.

The Good, The Bad, and The UglyThe Security

by Ryoko Fukushima,
Application Engineer

Email, Search Engines, Blog, Twitter, Ebay, Internet Banking. The Internet is deeply integrated into our everyday life and work. It makes it possible to exchange information and data almost instantaneously anywhere, anytime, and to anyone. The changes the Internet brought to our world have been irreversible, and the only way we can go is to forward.

But like any great human invention, it brought the good with the bad. Computer viruses, spam, malware, spyware, phishing. It is like opening the 21st century version of Pandora’s box. Cyber security has become an even more critical part of government and business infrastructure. However, tightening security against cyber threats actually can end up working against us. For instance, sometime our customers' network security unintentionally blocks harmless emails from Cimetrix with important attachment/data. Cimetrix believes that a smooth data delivery system is critical for our customer’s success.

This year, we began providing a data upload/download function to our protected customer support site. Data exchange is performed without compromising the customer’s network security.

To access, log in to the support website provided by Cimetrix with a valid username and password.

Picture 1: Support Website Logon Page

After successfully logging in, a user should see the following page with Support Files Upload/Download link.

Picture 2: Successfully Logged On

Clicking Support File Upload/Download directs a user to a file uploading page. Select a file to be uploaded by typing its complete path and name in File textbox or by selecting a file from Choose File to Upload dialog opened by clicking Browse button.

Next, click Upload button to upload the file to the support site. When file upload is complete, the user will see the newly uploaded file below the Browse and Upload buttons.The  user can download the uploaded file by clicking on its file name.

Picture 3: Upload Page

If you have any problems using the support website, please feel free to contact Cimetrix’s support group (support@cimetrix.com).

You might also be interested in:

• Reviewing the support options available from Cimetrix
• Visiting the secure Support Login Area

by Derek Lindsey,
Principal Software Engineer

I have a four year-old who is heavily into the “Why?” stage right now. He asks, “Why?” about everything. Several years ago when my daughter was that age, she had a neighborhood friend who was the queen of, “Why?” One time I decided to play along to see how many times she would ask why before she gave up. I don’t remember the original topic, but it had something to do with our deck. After a few iterations of her asking why and me trying to explain, I had reached the molecular level of describing deck stain. (She outlasted me, by the way.)

Karl Wiegers wrote an excellent book called Software Requirements. In chapter 7, he discusses requirements elicitation. He calls it “the most difficult, most critical, most error prone and most communication-intensive aspect of software development.”

Often times, preliminary discussion of requirements will result in the customer telling you what he thinks he wants rather than what he really needs. Rather than ask the question, “What do you want?” we should really be asking “What do you need to do?” Wants are usually expressed as design details (i.e. “I want the button to be green if the state is active”) whereas needs are the real requirements (i.e. “I need a way of letting the user know when the state changes.”)

To really get to the heart of what the customer needs, we can all learn from my 4 year-old neighbor and ask “why” several times to get to the molecular level of the problem that needs to be solved. Just taking the customer comment that the button needs to be green at face value is easy to implement, but doesn’t really meet the need of the customer. Asking why the button needs to be green and a few follow on questions easily uncovers the real need.

We've returned home from the show... tired, but excited about some of the great discussions and opportunities from the show! Although it was evident that SEMICON West is changing, it was also clear that the industry is rebounding and many new projects are getting underway.

Here a couple of quick snap shots of our booth:

We will be following up with visitors and customers this week. If you saw us at the show, thanks for stopping by and we look forward to continuing the conversation!