Industry News, Trends and Technology, and Standards Updates

We're having a great time at SEMICON West 2010!

Attendance (and the industry) is up and everyone is in good spirits. We've met with several customers introducing them to our new GEM Framework as well as our equipment automation solution, CIMControlFramework. The 1st day of SCW10 produced more leads for Cimetrix than the entire 2008 show!

The Cimetrix team has also been busy attending several industry and SEMI standards related events. Yesterday, Dave Faulkner, EVP of Sales & Marketing, facilitated the PV Group's interactive workshop: "The Middle Ground – The Role of Industry Collaboration in PV Manufacturing to Accelerate the Path towards a Sustainable Energy Future." In addition, Brian Rubow, Product Manager, was named the new GEM300 Task Force co-chair.

Today, Interface A is creating some buzz at the show. ISMI officially announced the new Freeze Version. During the ISMI eManufacturing workshop, Les Marshall, of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, publically stated that they need E148, E157, and Interface A. This is great news for Cimetrix - who invested early on in its development of Interface A Software Solutions! (Read Dave Faulkner's earlier post on the importance of Interface A data and Brian Rubow's earlier post on the need to "Be Prepared" for the new Freeze Version)

If you're at the show, please stop by and say, "hello." Cimetrix's booth is located in the south hall in booth #2331.

The semiconductor industry's largest event of the year, SEMICON West, is right around the corner.  And with the market in recovery, we expect it to be a good turn out and a great show.

This year, Cimetrix has several exciting new developments to discuss at the show:

• GEM Implementation - Faster & Better
  We've been at work developing a new solution that enables an even faster GEM implementation... while still improving the already high level of quality you've come to expect from Cimetrix. Designed to cover 90% of typical GEM interfaces, the new solution helps reduce time to market (and headaches) for our customers.
• The Year for Interface A - Are you Ready?
  ISMI announced the new Freeze Version of the Interface A Standards on June 17. Also, with increased SEMI investment and fabs requiring implementation, this has quickly become a hot topic. Is your software able to support multiple versions of the Interface A standard at the same time? Are you set up to adopt the new version effectively and efficiently?

We would love the opportunity to discuss your unique needs and projects with you further at the show.

Not registered for the show?  Email us for a free pass.

We will be in the South Hall - Booth #2331.

See you at the show!

The World Cup is one of the greatest sporting events around the globe - and, for many parts of the world, it is THE sporting event of the year. This year, ABC & ESPN experienced an 80% gain in viewers during the opening matches... and the team at Cimetrix definitely helped contribute to that statistic. An avid fan, Cimetrix's CEO, Bob Reback, spearheaded the "soccer spirit" and organized several gatherings to view the matches.

With a worldwide customer base, it was fun to establish a friendly rivalry with the teams (and our friends) from other countries. However, with the US no longer in the running, we chose to focus our loyalties on the other strong teams: the Netherlands and Germany.  Our friends at Assembleon appreciated the support:

If you're new to football and/or the World Cup, you might want to check out "A step-by-step guide on How to Appreciate a Soccer Game." before the final matches.  And for the latest news and results, visit the official World Cup website: FIFA.

by Dave Faulkner,
EVP, Sales & Marketing

Engineers love data. Business people love information. But it all starts with high-quality, real-time data. The possibilities are endless with good data.

As an equipment supplier, history probably has you living with a tool architecture from the early 300mm days. The focus was on implementing AMHS systems and meeting the GEM300 standards. A data driven architecture wasn't on the radar screen. And it wasn't a business priority. Times have changed. Fabs started asking for more data by creating the SEMI Interface A standards - and equipment suppliers are learning they can produce more productive equipment by leveraging the right data.

Interface A was an interesting concept when it started in the early 2000s. Discoverable data available to the fabs in real time would seem to be the answer to many problems. But the adoption has been less than stellar - even with strong endorsement and technical support by ISMI. Lack of fab side applications plumbed to use the Interface A data and "ownership" issues of the data haven't helped. These are real business problems that must be solved and will be solved with the next wave of fab purchases.

But what have we learned as equipment suppliers and software providers? Tool data models are helpful. Self description is great. We can create high performance data gathering applications that integrate with existing tool control architectures to make data available and controllable by the equipment supplier. Look at the performance of CIMPortal, our comprehensive equipment data acquisition (EDA) solution. We also learned that given the opportunity to "start over", we can create new tool control architectures that are data driven and prepared for the future. Look at CIMControlFramework. So the data is available - or you can make it available with an existing or new tool control architecture.

Let's put this data to work. Either to benefit you as the tool supplier or to help your customer. How is your tool accepted at the fabs? Do you have contingencies on your customer's payments? Does tool uptime have an impact on the tool price? Are your warranty costs too high? You get the point. With high-quality, real-time data at our fingertips, we can solve some of these business issues. We are at the beginning of a phase where the tool supplier makes use of this data and it directly impacts business results. Tool side fault detection, preventative maintenance, whatever is needed. The important point is we are finally starting from a strong foundation with the right data at the right time - and it can lead to increased margins or higher levels of customer satisfaction. Bring us your business problem and let's build something together to put this data to good use. Let's do it now!

by Peggy Faulkner,
Assistant Controller

"Pessimists are usually right and optimists are usually wrong but all the great changes have been accomplished by optimists. So what am I? I guess I would call myself a sober optimist...If you are not sober about the scale of the challenge, then you are not paying attention. But if you are not an optimist, you have no chance of generating the kind of mass movement needed to achieve the needed scale."
— Thomas L. Friedman, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—And How It Can Renew America”

Thomas Friedman, renowned New York Times columnist, author, and public speaker has been speaking and writing about the imperative need for American transition toward green energy for some time. His profound belief in superior American ingenuity and innovation, coupled with the rapidly growing world appetite for energy, is the potent recipe which should be directing our creative and practical energies toward a shift in US mentality that is not only good for our collective health, but also spells opportunity.

Photovoltaic production has been doubling every two years, increasing by an average of 48 percent each year since 2002, making it the world’s fastest-growing energy technology. The market research firm Gartner forecasts a 27% increase in semiconductor manufacturing in 2010, and a 35% increase in PV installations, even with the reduction of feed-in tariffs by the government in Germany, the world’s largest manufacturer of PV equipment.

Yet, as a developing industry, the PV arena has been evolving, and will continue to do so. Cimetrix has been involved in global efforts to define PV Standards through the PV-EIS Task Force since its inception in 2007. Standards were approved and published in June 2009, and Cimetrix engineers are uniquely qualified to understand and implement these standards as our PV customers adopt them.

All this bodes well for business, certainly in the short term. But another picture also emerges—one with cleaner air to breathe, fewer creatures futilely struggling to shed the oily coat imprisoning them, fewer distraught families hoping against dimming hope to see a loved one emerging from the mines, or watching fewer news images of the defeat and panic in the eyes of those who have lost their livelihood. Renewable energy sources can and will be a win-win for society and business alike. I, too, am an optimist. I know I’m on a winning team.

by Jentry Nourse,
AP/AR Coordinator

For months now the only think anyone has been talking about is Healthcare. Now that the bill has passed, it seems like everyone is wondering …..”what does this mean for me? And, how will my company/employer be affected?”

I was able to attend a webinar just 1 day after the Healthcare Bill was signed into law. It was offered through our benefits provider and, in an attempt to gain more knowledge on the upcoming changes, our HR Department attended. The webinar was conducted by Janet Trautwein, CEO of NAHU (National Association of Healthcare Underwriters.) Janet briefly went through the signed Healthcare Bill noting that a Reconciliation Bill would be proposed by the house and that the immediate impact could not be 

Timelines for these changes are easy to find and most of them show changes to the laws being implemented over the next 9 years to allow for the phasing in of the new changes and phasing out of the old procedures. The details are simply not outlined yet, making it hard to determine what the short term and long term effect will be.

With our benefits open enrollment just around the corner (July), we are actively looking at the upcoming changes and what they mean for our company and our employees, both short term and long term 

The next few months will be full of meetings with our providers to determine what we can do to keep healthcare premiums at a minimum as well as how to make healthcare work harder for our employees. Being able to provide a comprehensive benefits package is one of our top priorities. In order to successfully do this, it’s important to know what concerns / questions they have.

• What questions/concerns do you have with the newly passed Healthcare Bill?
• What do you like/dislike about our current benefits?
• What are your biggest concerns for the future of healthcare?

by Brian Rubow,
Product Manager

I have been a Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America for about 5 years now. Our troop goes camping several times a year. Utah offers a lot of beautiful and interesting camping areas. The variety is remarkable. In our troop we spent a lot of time teaching and preparing the boys to not only have fun, but also be safe and wise in their fun. Some planning ahead, training and common sense can make a huge difference. Nearly every week, I have our Senior Patrol Leader help all of the scouts in our troop recite a number of memorized phrases including the Scout Oath, Law, Slogan, Motto and sometimes even the Outdoor Code. The Scout Motto is the famous one known to almost everyone in the world; "Be Prepared". Reciting it every week helps our minds to remember to focus on being prepared for whatever may come. We prepare the boys to handle emergency situations such as medical and weather related emergencies. "Be Prepared" applies not only to scouting activities like camping, canoeing and hiking, but also to school, our careers and everything we do.

At Cimetrix we also like to "Be Prepared". In particular, at the time we designed our EDA (Interface A) products, CIMPortal and EDAConnect we recognized a need to support multiple versions of the standard. Since 2006, there has been only one allowed version of the EDA standards. This is the ISMI Freeze Version which specifies the 1105 version of the SEMI® standards. At Cimetrix we knew that at some point in the future the 1105 ISMI Freeze Version would not be the only version implemented. As co-chair of the DDA Task Force responsible for the development of the SEMI EDA standards, I can personally attest that the standards have continued to change, mature and improve. At Cimetrix, we predicted from the start that at some point in the future, factories would want these new features in the standards and that ISMI would announce another EDA Freeze Version.

Due to the nature of the underlying SOAP/XML technology, the client and equipment are required to use the same version of the SEMI standards. With one and only one ISMI Freeze Version, this is easy. Everyone's implementation works with everyone else's implementation. With more than one ISMI Freeze Version, it is more complicated. Each equipment supplier has to support each ISMI Freeze Version to communicate with the different client software at different factories or even in the same factory. Each factory has to support each ISMI Freeze Version to communicate with the different equipment implementing different versions.

ISMI is poised to announce another EDA Freeze Version soon. Certainly the factories using the EDA standards will expect equipment suppliers to adopt the new version as soon as possible. And certainly factory data collection applications will want to adopt the new version and take advantage of the new features.

To "Be Prepared" for the future, Cimetrix originally designed both EDA products, CIMPortal and EDAConnect, for the future. Each product is designed with an abstraction layer to be able to support multiple EDA versions at the same time. This makes it possible for Cimetrix to adopt the new EDA versions without rearchitecting the products. In turn, this passes on tremendous value to our customers who also will not have to rearchitect their solutions. In fact, Cimetrix customer should be able to upgrade to new Freeze Versions with relative ease. It is nice to "Be Prepared".

Schedule a meeting at SEMICON® West 2010 to discuss your Interface A needs further!
Or visit us at Booth #2331, South Hall. 

by David Warren,
Senior Software Engineer, CIMControlFramework Solution Architect

Part 2 - Read Part 1

Would it surprise you to find out there are still people who pan for gold? Some are serious prospectors working for a payoff. Others are recreational prospectors who enjoy the outdoor activity and the actual finding of gold is of secondary importance. Regardless of their motivation, most prospectors must sift a great deal of material in order to find a few flakes of gold. Having the right equipment helps the serious prospector to sift more material and find gold more quickly than someone just looking for a good time.

What does panning for gold have to do with Cimetrix? In a previous blog, we talked about the importance of having log data when problems occur. Log data can be like panning for gold—most of the log data has little to do with the problem you are currently trying to solve, but a few of the messages will be pure gold. Having the right tools to find the gold log messages quickly can make all the difference in the world in resolving problems in a timely manner.

Analyzing tens of megabytes of text data with a text editor and a pair of Mark I eyeballs is difficult at best. Yes, text editors do have the ability to search for words or phrases, but that only helps if you already know what you’re looking for. Jumping into the middle of a log file lets you look at the messages in that part of the file, but gives you no context into what has happened before or after the log messages you are looking at.

CIMControlFramework, our tool control solution, contains a Log Viewer application to help analyze CIMControlFramework log files. It has standard text analysis features such as text search and bookmarking, but because it understands CIMControlFramework log messages, it has more powerful features as well. It adds features like time deltas, finding matching messages for function entry and exits, and tracing a single thread’s log messages. But its most powerful feature is being extensible through plug-ins. These plug-ins have the ability to analyze all the log messages and graphically display information to give context to the current log messages.

One such plug-in is the Timing Chart. The Timing Chart looks at all the function entry/exit log messages and creates a timing chart centered on the current log message. This allows you to look at all the functions that are currently being executed and how long each function took to complete. It also shows which functions just finished and which functions are about to start. It just wouldn’t be feasible to keep track of all that information manually. Another plug-in tracks wafers as they move through tool. A third plug-in keeps track of GEM300 job data. And you are not limited to our ideas for plug-ins, you can develop your own to display the log data however you want.

Having the CIMControlFramework Log Viewer and its plug-ins helps you to sift through the log data and find the gold log messages quickly and efficiently. Finding the right log messages will enable you to resolve problems in a timely manner.

by Brent Forsgren,
Director of OEM Solutions

Fabs are like people, each one has it own personality traits. Fortunately, and arguably unfortunately, unlike people, most fabs have a handbook for their “personalities” in the form of specifications. I have found it interesting, that like people, fab “personalities” have common and unique features. Here are a few of examples:

• There are some fabs that I would classify as the “Clean Freak.” Compliance to GEM and GEM 300 standards is important but more important to them is preventing cross contamination between FOUPs, and from wafer to wafer – “Who left this loadport door open? Don’t you know you can spread particles by doing that??”
• Then there are other fabs that I would classify as the “Punctilious.” Again, compliance to the GEM and GEM300 standards is required but more important to them is knowing exactly when you are going to be done, when you are ready for more, are you done yet, how much longer are you going to be, are you done yet?
• Then there are other fabs that are “Methodical-ious” (if I can make that a word). Everything must happen in a very specific order. 1) Don’t allow jobs to exist without material at the tool first; 2) Download the recipe before every job that is created; 3) Create the job now. 4) If the FOUP is removed before the job starts, refer to rule 1.
• And let’s admit it, all fabs are “Control Freaks,” if they weren’t we wouldn’t be in business. They control when jobs are run, how jobs are run, and what a job does.

Hmmmm……that makes me wonder, if fabs are like people, does that make companies like Cimetrix psychiatrists?

This weekend, we held our Annual Shareholder's Meeting at our corporate headquarters in Salt lake City, UT.  We had a good turn out of shareholders, board members, and employees. Company executives shared about the company - who we are and what we do - as well as the financial results of 2009 and our goals for 2010.