Industry News, Trends and Technology, and Standards Updates

SEMICON Taiwan 2020 is happening next week!

Posted by Kimberly Daich; Director of Marketing on Sep 15, 2020 6:00:00 PM

SEMICON Taiwan 2020 is coming soon and our Taiwan team will be there! You can read about it now in Traditional Chinese or below in English

semicon-taiwan-top-banner

SEMICON Taiwan將是SEMI的第一個全面的實體虛擬活動。這與Cimetrix的業務完全吻合,我們將在智能製造大廳的K3068號展位展出。

我們知道今年是史無前例的,許多人將無法前往台灣。但是,我們想邀請所有能夠參加展會的人前來參觀,看看Cimetrix的新功能! 您也可以在演出前隨時與我們安排會議)!

Cimetrix將在SEMICON Taiwan上展示我們的最新產品和尖端技術。這包括我們的設備控制平台演示,EDA產品以及GEM連接性和一致性測試產品。我們還將能夠提供有關SEMI標準和SEMI技術的一些最新更改的更新。

我們也很高興宣布今年的演講嘉賓:我們的新產品創新副總裁艾倫·韋伯(Alan Weber)和我們的台灣總經理李孟修(Michael Lee)將就“半導體智能製造:業務驅動器,技術的不斷發展的紐帶和標準”發表演講。於924日星期四上午11:30會見專家展位(J3146

祝大家安全健康地進行展覽。儘管我們的許多全球團隊都會錯過此次展會,但我們的台灣團隊和合作夥伴將隨時準備回答您的所有問題。我們希望看到你在那裡!

Meet with Us


semicon-taiwan-top-banner

SEMICON Taiwan will be SEMI’s first comprehensive physical-virtual event, and will take place during September 23-25 at TaiNEX 1 (Nangang Exhibition Center) in Taipei, Taiwan with the theme “Leading the Smart Future.” This is perfectly aligned with the business of Cimetrix, and we will exhibit in the Smart Manufacturing hall at booth K3068.

We know this year is unprecedented and many will not be able to travel to Taiwan. However, we would like to invite everyone who is able to attend the show to stop by and see what’s new with Cimetrix! (You can also schedule a meeting with us at any time before the show)!

Cimetrix will showcase our latest products and cutting-edge technologies during SEMICON Taiwan. This includes our equipment control platform demonstrations, EDA products and GEM connectivity and compliance testing products. We will also be able to give updates on some of the latest changes to the SEMI Standards and SEMI technologies.

We are also excited to announce our speaker this year: Alan Weber, our VP of New Product Innovations, and Michael Lee, our General Manager in Taiwan, will speak on the topic of “Semiconductor Smart Manufacturing: An Evolving Nexus of Business Drivers, Technologies, and Standards” at the SEMI Meet the Experts Booth (J3146) on Thursday, September 24 at 11:30 a.m.

We wish everyone a safe and healthy exhibition. While many of our worldwide team will miss being at the show, our Taiwan team and our partners will be available and ready to answer all your questions. We hope to see you there!

Meet with Us

 

Topics: Industry Highlights, Semiconductor Industry, Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0

SEMICON China 2020 Pressed Forward Successfully

Posted by Lewis Liu on Jul 15, 2020 11:45:00 AM

Read the Post-show report of the SEMICON China 2019 show today. Read it now in Chinese or below in English.

semicon-china-2020-image  一年一度为期3天的半导体盛会SEMICON China 2020于6月27-29在上海新国际博览中心顺利举行并落下帷幕。展会汇集了业内八百余展商,一起交流探讨,共享半导体行业技术和市场动向。此次盛会是后疫情期电子半导体行业的首展。由于疫情,暴雨和端午佳节诸多因素影响, 参加人数比往年有所减少,但是在如此艰难的情况下,半导体人还能克服困难,聚集在此举办盛会,已经算是非常成功!2020年恰巧是SEMI国际半导体产业协会的50岁生日,这也给此次聚会赋予了特殊的意义!
作为SEMI国际半导体产业协会最紧密并且历史最悠久的合作方之一,矽美科一如既往的参加了此次展会。在中国区技术负责人刘波和黄玉峰的主持下,我们展示了矽美科行业领先的符合SECS/GEM, GEM300, EDA/Interface A等SEMI标准的互联软件产品。 我们不仅见到了一批老朋友,也相识了 一批新朋友,大家一起交流市场和技术信息,畅谈合作共赢机会!

SEMICON-China-pic1


展会期间,我们也预定了SEMICON CHINA 2021的展位。我们将和SEMI及所有半导体人一起长期坚持不懈的耕耘在这个伟大的行业,希望能为中国乃至全球电子半导体行业做出力所能及的贡献!我们明年再会!

要了解更多关于Cimetrix产品和服务的信息,您可以随时安排会议。

Schedule a Meeting


semicon-china-2020-imageThe annual three-day SEMICON China 2020 event, originally scheduled for March, was successfully held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center June 27-29, 2020. Despite the lack of international travelers, the exhibition brought together more than 800 exhibitors who exchanged, discussed, and shared semiconductor industry technology and market trends. This event was the first exhibition of the electronic and semiconductor industries in the COVID-19 period. Due not only to the pandemic but also other factors such as bad weather and the Dragon Boat Festival, there were fewer participants than in previous years. However, given these circumstances, our industry in China overcame the difficulties and gathered in Shanghai to celebrate the 50th birthday of the SEMI organization—this gave the show an extra special meaning!

SEMICON-China-pic1As a longstanding member and collaborative partner of SEMI, Cimetrix has now participated in this exhibition for several years. With the support of Clare Liu and Yufeng Huang, the company’s principal technologists in China, Cimetrix showed its industry-leading connectivity software products that meet GEM, GEM300, EDA/Interface A and other SEMI standards. We not only spent time with old friends, clients and colleagues, but also met many new people that represent an opportunity to learn and grow. 

Finally, during the exhibition, we booked the booth space for SEMICON CHINA 2021. We are excited to support and participate in the Chinese semiconductor manufacturing industry, to anticipate where the industry is headed, and to work together in meeting the future challenges head on.

To learn more about Cimetrix products and services, you can schedule a meeting any time.

Schedule a Meeting

Topics: Semiconductor Industry, Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0

SEMICON Korea 2020 is Cancelled

Posted by Kimberly Daich; Director of Marketing on Jan 29, 2020 8:00:00 PM

semicon-korea-top

오늘 1월 31일 SEMI 협회는 코로나바이러스가 확산됨에 따라서, 2/5일부터 개최 예정이였던 SEMICON Korea 2020을 전면 취소할 수 밖에 없음을 알려 왔습니다. 궁금한 점이 있으시면 연락주시기를 바라며, 건강에 더욱 유념하시기를 부탁드립니다.

The SEMI Association has announced that, due to recent health concerns, they feel they have no choice but to cancel SEMICON Korea 2020. Please let us know if you have any questions, and feel free to reach out to us at any time.


Read now in Korean or below in English.

세미콘 코리아 202025일부터 7일까지 코엑스에서 개최될 예정입니다. 씨메트릭스는 한국 파트너사인 링크제니시스와 부스 #C818에서 여러분들을 맞을 준비를 하고 있습니다. “Design the Future”라는 주제로 반도체 제조, AI등 첨단 주제를 30여개의 프로그램이 진행될 예정이면, 저희 씨메트릭스와 링크제니시스는 다음과 같은 내용을 준비하였습니다.

  • 빅데이터/AI/머신러닝에서의EDA/Interface A의 역할 (고객사와의 공동 연구 제안 중)
  • 최근 한국과 중국에서 씨메트릭스가 주최한 EDA 세미나에서 많은 관심을 받은 Freeze III에 관한 안내 큰 주목을 받고 있는 이유는 데이터 처리 속도의 괄목한 만한 향상에 대한 기대감
  • EDA 개발시 혹은 검수시 오는 효율적이고 철저한 테스트의 어려움과 복잡함을 자동화를 통하여 해결
  • 많은 장비회사가 미래 성장을 위해서 준비하고 있는 소프트웨어의 고도화를 위한 로드맵 제시

부디 방문해 주시기를 바라며 미팅을 원하실 경우 아래의 버튼을 통하여 신청해 주시기 바랍니다.

Meet with Us


SEMICON Korea 2020 is almost here and Cimetrix is headed to the show! We will be co-exhibiting with our partner Linkgenesis at booth #C818. The show will be at COEX in Seoul on February 5-7. We look forward to the show and hope to see you there!

This year’s SEMICON Korea theme is: Design the Future and will feature more than 30 technology programs offering leading insights into semiconductor manufacturing, AI and more. Cimetrix recently held a seminar, in partnership with SEMI, around the topic EDA/Interface A, and this seems to be a major talking point both for SEMICON Korea, and around the world at this time.

If you want to find out more about EDA/Interface A, and how it can help with your Smart Factory goals, be sure to stop by our booth #C818. Some of the things you might learn are:

  • How EDA/Interface A leads the Big Data/AI/Machine Learning initiatives in the semiconductor world.
  • Hear recent news on the Freeze III that ensures a huge performance gain with existing EDA.
  • EDA acceptance testing can be difficult due to its complexity. Find out an easy way of testing the EDA interface .
  • Good equipment needs good software inside. Find out how to prepare competitive software with a good software roadmap.

We hope to see you at our booth, or you can request a meeting any time by clicking the button below.

Meet with Us

Topics: Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0

IPC Apex 2020 is here and Cimetrix will be there!

Posted by Kimberly Daich; Director of Marketing on Jan 28, 2020 1:15:00 PM

IPC Apex 2020

IPC APEX 2020 is almost here, and we are excited to be exhibiting for the fourth year in a row! This year, you can find us at booth #1521 and we hope to see you during the show!

IPC APEX is the largest event for electronics manufacturing in North America. You’ll find exhibitors and attendees from around the world come not only for the exhibition, but also to participate in standards development, a technical conference and professional development.

We are happy to announce that Ranjan Chatterjee, the Cimetrix VP & GM of the Smart Factory Business Unit will be speaking, along with Dan Gamota from Jabil, on Wednesday between 10:30 – 12 Noon.

One unified platform to run your entire factory

We will also be featuring demos of our Cimetrix Sapience® Integration Platform. Sapience is an extensible platform to seamlessly connect varying factory equipment within a single event-driven framework. Sapience provides rapid-deployment tools for factories to mine the treasure trove of data available from shop floor equipment driving actionable insights for optimal decision-making.
You can find out more about Sapience by visiting our website.
 
Cimetrix will once again be participating in the Passport to Prizes, so be sure to stop by our booth so you are eligible for some fun prizes!

The IPC APEX Show runs Tuesday, February 4 – Thursday, February 6 at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA, USA.

If you would like to learn more about how Cimetrix software products can help with your Smart Factory goals, please stop by our booth #1521 during the show. You can also request a meeting any time on the events page of our website by clicking the Schedule a Meeting button below. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!

Schedule a Meeting

Topics: Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0

Cimetrix Korea presents the 5th Annual EDA/Interface A Seminar in Seoul - Registration is open now!

Posted by Hwal Song on Dec 26, 2019 5:45:00 PM

Cimetrix Korea is happy to announce that the 5th EDA (Equipment Data Acquisition) Seminar will be held on January 15th, 2020. It will be co-hosted with Linkgenesis, the regional distributor of CIMPortal Plus, the EDA suite from Cimetrix.

As EDA has expanded its footprint as the preferred industry standard among leading IDMs in the world of big data, AI, Machine Learning, and Industry 4.0, equipment makers face the challenges of delivering the new requirements of EDA without fully understanding its fundamental objectives, technologies, and benefits.

This seminar is designed with highly practical sessions where speakers will share their personal experiences and insights as developers to help software engineers at the equipment suppliers understand the most efficient ways to implement robust EDA interrfaces.

For registration and questions, please email Ian Ryu (ian.ryu@cimetrix.com).

Topics include the following:

  1. Global and domestic EDA trends, including Freeze III, that will introduce major performance improvements.
  2. EDA spec review – A summary of key contents from the newest and most demanding EDA specifications that a developer must know.
  3. EDA modeling methodology and important lessons learning that Cimetrix engineers have gained while supporting many new EDA customers.
  4. Testing methodology used during development and needed for EDA acceptance to ensure that standards compliance and interface performance expectations are met.
  5. Other general topics
    a-Software roadmap for equipment makers
    b-Smart factory

We look forward to seeing you at the seminar!


씨메트릭스 코리아는 파트너사인 링크제니시스와 공동으로 제5회 EDA 세미나를 2020년 1월 15일에 개최하게 되었음을 기쁘게 생각합니다. 최근 몇년 간 EDA가 국내뿐 아니라 해외 반도체 제조사에서 빅데이터, AI, 인더스트리 4.0에 부응하기 위해 업계 표준으로 자리를 잡아감에 따라, 여러 장비회사들은, 복잡한 EDA 요구사항을 충분히 이해하지 못한 상황에서 관련된 요구사항을 개발해야하는 도전에 처해 있는 상황입니다.

한국에서 개최되는 금번 세미나는 실용적인 방법론을 최대한 강조한 세션들로 구성되어, 발표자들이 지난 수년 동안 쌓은 개발자로서의 경험과 통찰력을 최대한 공유함으로 참가한 개발자분들이 각자의 회사로 돌아가 EDA 인터페이스를 개발할 때, 최선의 개발 및 디자인 선택을 할 수 있도록 하였습니다.

참석하시는 분들에게 실전에 도움이 되는 유익한 시간이 되시리라 생각됩니다.

세미나 등록이나 기타 질문은 유종하 팀장 (ian.ryu@cimetrix.com)에게 연락 주시기 바랍니다.

세션은 아래와 같이 진행됩니다.

  1. EDA의 국내외 동향(FREEZE III 포함) EDA 관련 업계 현황과 큰 성능개선을 기대하는 Freeze III 소개
  2. EDA Spec Review : 개발자로서 알아야 할 새롭고 복잡한 EDA  스펙의 키포인트 정리
  3. EDA 모델링 개발 지원 경험 공유 – EDA를 신규 개발하는 여러 회사를 지원하며 축적된 경험 공유 및 방향성 제시
  4. 개발 및 납품 시 테스트 방법론 – 개발과 검수 효율성을 향상
  5. 일반 주제
    1. 장비회사에서 가져야 할 소프트웨어 로드맵
    2. 스마트팩토리 솔루션

감사합니다.

Topics: Industry Highlights, Semiconductor Industry, EDA/Interface A, Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events

Cimetrix is headed to Tokyo for SEMICON Japan 2019 – our last show of the year!

Posted by Kimberly Daich; Director of Marketing on Dec 4, 2019 5:00:00 PM

SEMICON Japan 2019 is coming soon and we will be there! You can read about it now in Japanese or below in English.

2019NewHero_bnr-1Cimetrixは本年最後の業界エキジビションである、セミコンジャパン2019に出展致します。

今回Cimetrixとして初めての単独ブースを、東京ビックサイトで開催されるセミコンジャパン2019出展します。期間は1211()~1213()です。
パートナーのブース(ローツェ株式会社様 #8419、および株式会社明電舎様#7714)、またはCimetrixブース(#2467)に是非お立ち寄りください。

日本は世界半導体製造産業界に生産設備の3分の1、材料の半分以上を供給しています。ITを利用した高度な生産効率の改善を実現するためのスマートマニュファクチャリングの推進にあたり、革新的なソリューションとテクノロジーをセミコンジャパンをはじめとする展示会で積極的に紹介しています。

弊社ブースでは今回GEM装置接続・制御ソフトウェアソリューション、EDA/Interface A組み込み開発ソリューション、及び最新製品であるGEM/GEM300スタンダードコンプライアンステスターのEquipmentTestをご紹介します。お客様はEquipmentTestを使用することで、工場側通信システムに接続するための装置通信機能を迅速に検証できます。
本ツールはベーシックバージョンとプロフェッショナルバージョンが準備されており、GEM、PCBECI、及びSEMI SMT-ELSの完全な標準コンプライアンステストを使用可能です。

最新製品としてもうひとつ、Sapienceを展示します。
Sapienceはスマートマニュファクチャリングを実現するための、装置データハンドリングプラットフォームです。イベント駆動型フレームワークを採用しており、さまざまな装置設備と工場をシームレスに接続可能です。
工場のITシステムが設備に直接アクセス可能とすることで工場主体の装置通信、データ収集、プロセス制御を実現し、インダストリー4.0、ビッグデータ、スマートマニュファクチャリングの基盤を確立します。

また弊社は12月11日(水)午後3時10分から会議棟608号室、TechSTAGE SMART Manufacturingフォーラムにて講演を行います。今年のテーマは「組み立てラインにおけるスマート化」です。この講演では、弊社のシステム構築のエキスパートコンサルタントであるアラン・ウェーバーが、「半導体スマートマニュファクチャリング:後工程ファクトリーのスマートマニュファクチャリング実現の要件、スタンダード、ソリューション」というタイトルのプレゼンテーションを行います。

展示会期間中に、是非、弊社ブース#2467にお立ち寄りください。
生産設備のスマート化、スマートファクトリーソフトウェアの専門家がお待ちしています。
下のボタンをクリックして事前にミーティング予約することも可能です。
お客様のご来訪をお待ち申し上げております。Meet with Us


2019NewHero_bnr-1Cimetrix is headed to Tokyo for SEMICON Japan 2019 – our last show of the year!

We are travelling to Tokyo, Japan next week to exhibit in our own booth at SEMICON Japan for the first time! This year’s show is once again located at Tokyo Big Sight from Wednesday, December 11 – Friday, December 13. Whether it’s at our partner booth (Rorze Corporation #8419 and Meiden #7714) or at the Cimetrix booth (#2467), we hope to see you there!

Japan supplies one third of the equipment and more than half of all materials to the global semiconductor manufacturing industry. As the world gets smarter, innovative solutions and technologies continue to be introduced at big shows like this.

Cimetrix will be showing all of our GEM equipment connectivity and control software solutions, as well as our EDA/Interface A products. We will also be introducing Japan to some of our newest products: Cimetrix EquipmentTest. This flexible software tool allows you to quickly validate an equipment’s ability to connect to a factory control system. It can be purchased in both the Basic and Pro versions, and supports full standards compliance tests for GEM, PCBECI and SEMI SMT-ELS out of the box.

Cimetrix Sapience will also be on display at our booth. Sapience is the Smart Factory Platform that seamlessly connects varying factory equipment within a single event-driven framework. The Sapience platform allows factory IT systems direct access to factory equipment, and the resulting equipment communication, data collection and process control establishes the foundation for Industry 4.0, Big Data and Smart Factory initiatives.

We are also privileged to have been invited to speak at the Smart Manufacturing Forum on Wednesday (Dec 11) afternoon at 3:10 pm on the TechSTAGE in Room 608 of the conference Tower. This year’s theme is “Realizing the SMART Assembly Line.” In this context, Alan Weber will deliver a presentation entitled “Semiconductor Smart Manufacturing: Requirements, Standards, and Solutions for the Back End.”

We encourage you to stop by booth #2467 and speak with an expert for your Smart Equipment and Smart Factory software needs! You can also book a meeting with us in advance by clicking the button below. We hope to see you soon.Meet with Us

 

Topics: Semiconductor Industry, Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0

Industry Standards Activity Report November 2019

Posted by Brian Rubow: Director of Solutions Engineering on Nov 20, 2019 11:00:00 AM

The SEMI North American standards meetings for the Information and Control Committee were held recently and the following is a summary of some of the highlights and action items. 

In the GEM 300 task force, a revision to GEM officially removed E139 as a recipe management option. A planned revision to GEM should be much more exciting and progressive, but this work cannot begin until E30 is published with the current changes. In the meantime, future near-term plans include defining new SECS-II messages to improve host access to data collection setup and some terminology clarification. Brian Rubow from Cimetrix continues to co-lead this task force with Chris Maloney of Intel.

In the DDA (Diagnostics Data Acquisition) task force, which Brian Rubow from Cimetrix continues to co-lead, the standard that establishes gRPC and Protocol Buffers for EDA freeze 3 was approved. However proposed changes to the other core standards E125, E132 and E134 all failed, as well as the gRPC adoption for E132. The failures were expected. Additionally the North America DDA task force leaders continue to actively collaborate with the co-leaders of the DDA task force in South Korea. It is a great example of competitors working together at SEMI to create common solutions that satisfy everyone’s requirements.

Tami Tracy, a Cimetrix Solutions Engineering Manager, was officially voted in as a GUI task force co-leader for 2020, co-leading with Frank Summers. Congratulations and thanks to Tami for volunteering for this position. This will accelerate the task force's plans to modernize the SEMI E95 standard.

The Computer and Device Security (CDS) task force announced a vastly improved collaboration with its sister organization in Taiwan which has officially agreed to "divide and conquer" rather than attempting to address the entire scope of this domain with a single standard. A few months ago, the two groups seemed to be at odds with each other...The Taiwan task force proposed to include all factory and equipment security issues in one effort, while the North American task force wanted to focus initially on the equipment issues. The Taiwan, Japan and North America Task Force Leadership have now agreed to convert the Specification for Malware Free Equipment Integration (SNARF) 6506 into an overarching standard. The CDS task force is moving forward on SNARF 6566, and received authorization for a ballot on this proposed new standard for Cycle 2-2020.

The Advanced Factory Factory Integration (ABFI) task force, headed by Brian Rubow (Director of Solutions Engineering, Cimetrix) and Dave Huntley (PDF Solutions), held its first task force meeting. One order of business is to update E142 substrate mapping. The task force intends to map equipment features to SEMI standards including GEM and GEM 300. This effort could facilitate adoption of the GEM standard on equipment that previously had little interface standardization. It should also encourage further advance the goals of Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 in related industries, encouraging more factories and equipment to adopt the standards that have been so successfully applied in semiconductor manufacturing for decades.

To find out more, you can speak with an industry standards expert today by clicking the link below.

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Topics: Industry Highlights, Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Posted by David Francis: Director of Product Management on Nov 13, 2019 7:45:00 AM

In the early 1990’s I worked with companies like Motorola, Wacker Siltronics, and AT&T to characterize the SEMI Equipment Communication Standards (SECS) interface on the equipment. It was early in the process of connecting process and metrology equipment to a factory control system (Manufacturing Execution System – MES), in the days before the leading chip makers at that time got together to define the Generic Equipment Model (GEM), which was eventually balloted as SEMI E30.

It was a fun and exciting time as process owners began to see the power and benefit of having an automated interface to the equipment. The first project I worked on was collecting critical dimension (CD) data from a microscope following a lithography process step. Previously the operators would manually enter 6 measurement data points to 8-digit precision. This was a very error-prone process, and each time a mistake was made, lots were put on hold until the problem was diagnosed. This affected not only the throughput of the lithography area, but also the overall fab, since the litho tools are invariably the bottleneck. The automated interface eliminated this problem because process engineers knew that any lot holds were due to real process errors rather than operator input errors.

Moving the automated interface to the process equipment was a little more difficult. An automated interface on a metrology tool cannot cause misprocessing, but an automated interface on a process tool was a little riskier. We decided that the first step would be to simply verify that the correct recipe was selected, and not allow processing to proceed until it was reviewed by the process Engineer assigned to that equipment. Within a few minutes of going live with the first automated interface for a process equipment, a mismatch was detected between the operator-selected recipe and the recipe specified in the MES. A quick check by the process engineer verified that the technician had indeed selected the wrong recipe—this simple check alone saved misprocessing the entire carrier of material.Prod20191

From these humble beginnings, full factory automation in front end 300mm fabs was adopted quickly and revolutionized semiconductor manufacturing. The level of automation in other areas of the semiconductor and electronics assembly industries is now increasing dramatically, motivated by the prospect of improved factory throughput and higher yields. Moreover, the experience gained through implementation of automated interfaces using SEMI communication standards will be a great benefit to semiconductor backend and electronics assembly markets. Some of the standards used in 300mm automation have already been modified for this purpose, and new standards are in work to better serve these industries.Prod20192

SMT-ELS-Equipment-link-standard

In September 2019, SEMI published the PCBECI (Printed Circuit Board Equipment Communications Interface) standard, officially designated SEMI A3. This standard is a simplification of the reliable and much-used GEM equipment communication standard.

Early in 2019 the SMT-ELS (Surface Mount Technology Equipment Link Standard) suite, designated SEMI A1, A1.1, and A2, was also published. These standards address the need for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications to support flow manufacturing processes. The adoption process for these new standards has just begun, but like the early adoption of the SECS and GEM standards, it is exciting times and good things are happening. 

Visit us as Productronica (Hall A3 Booth 421) or SEMICON Europa (Hall B1 Booth 525) to hear more about these new standards and the products Cimetrix has developed to support their implementation and validation in equipment and factories. Or you can get in touch with a standards expert any time by clicking the link below. 

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Topics: Industry Highlights, Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0

Advanced Process Control Conference XXXI:  Retrospective and New Standards News

Posted by Alan Weber: Vice President, New Product Innovations on Nov 11, 2019 9:15:00 AM

APC2019-1The 31st annual APC Conference is now in the history books, and the diversity of topics, presenters, and local distractions made it well worth the visit to San Antonio! This year’s agenda featured half-day tutorials on the basics of APC and cyber-security, keynotes from chip makers and leading suppliers on automotive industry requirements, smart equipment, and smart manufacturing, and a series of packed technical sessions covering sensors and equipment control, fault detection and feedforward/feedback control, advanced analytics, and standards.

One of the presentations in the standards session provided detailed information about the new SEMI SMT-ELS (Surface Mount Technology Equipment Link Standards) M2M (machine-to-machine) communications standard. Alan Weber made the presentation titled “SEMI Standards to Support APC for Post-Fab Operations” to an interested audience, which triggered a number of discussions about the automation roadmap for the semiconductor assembly and test segment. This was especially relevant, since some of the leaders of the newly formed SEMI Advanced Backend Factory Integration Task Force (ABFI TF) were also present.

APC2019pic2The SMT-ELS standard has come a long way in a short time, and the ambitious, integrated demonstration created by 4 major SMT suppliers (Fuji, Juki, Panasonic, Yamaha) that was exhibited in June (Japan) and August (China) will again be shown in productronica (Munich, 13-15 November). The basic functions of SMT-ELS (officially designated at SEMI A1, A1.1, and A2) appear in the figure below.

APC2019pic3Cimetrix will likewise demonstrate this new standard at productronica, showing not only an equipment-level implementation of the M2M features but also the host-based configuration process and a plug-in for doing protocol validation tests.

Smart Manufacturing was a common theme this year, with an entire session dedicated to this global initiative. The Factory Integration section of the IRDS (International Roadmap for Devices and Systems) will be reorganized around the tenets of Smart Manufacturing, and a two-volume multi-industry book on this body of technology is scheduled for publication early next year. Another of Alan Weber’s presentations was dedicated to this topic, as he wrote the chapter chronicling the semiconductor industry’s development and use of these technologies.

APC2019pic4If you would like any further information, you can speak with a Cimetrix expert, or you can stop by our booth at productronica this week (Hall A3 booth 451). 

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Topics: Industry Highlights, Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0

We Will Be At Both productronica And SEMICON Europa This Year in Munich. Will We See You There?

Posted by Kimberly Daich; Director of Marketing on Nov 5, 2019 11:30:00 AM

Productronica-semiconIn less than a week, two of the industry’s largest European shows will begin. The 2019 productronica show is co-located once again with SEMICON Europa in Munich, Germany from November 12-15 at the Messe München expo center. For the first time ever, Cimetrix will be exhibiting at both shows, and we welcome you to join us! 

Productronica is the world's leading trade fair for electronics development and production. Cimetrix will demonstrate our Smart Factory products, including Sapience, to show how we can help with your Smart Factory needs. Sapience is a simple solution for connecting multiple machines in a manufacturing line to a factory host system. It offers an economical and scalable solution that can support machines using many communications protocols, including SEMI SMT-ELS, the latest machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity standard. Please be sure to visit us at our productronica booth #451 in Hall A3.

Over in Hall B1, the SEMICON Europa show will be going strong. SEMICON Europa attracts an audience from every segment of the European microelectronics industries including semiconductors, PV, HB-LED, MEMS, and other adjacent markets.  The combination of SEMICON with productronica is the largest single exhibition for electronics manufacturing in all of Europe. We are excited to once again participate in this event to show how our products can fulfill your Smart Equipment needs.

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Equipment manufacturers who want to embrace Industry 4.0 and all its benefits must first put the right digital building blocks in place. The foundation of this digital transformation is connectivity, and that's where Cimetrix can help. Whether you are an equipment manufacturer or an electronics factory, we can address your connectivity requirements. 

We invite you to drop by either of our booths at productronica or SEMICON Europa, or you can make an appointment ahead of time by clicking the button below. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Topics: Doing Business with Cimetrix, Events, Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0