SEMI E38 - Cluster Tool Module Communications (CTMC) -

Abstract

This standard was technically approved by the global Information & Control Committee. This edition was approved for publication by the global Audits and Reviews Subcommittee on November 21, 2006. It was available at www.semi.org in February 2007 and on CD-ROM in March 2007. Originally published in 1995; previously published December 1996.

 

NOTICE: This document was balloted and approved for withdrawl in 2007.

 

Cluster tools fulfill a need for modularity and flexibility in semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This standard addresses the communications with and among modules within a cluster tool for automated control. The module communications services defined here will enable standard interoperability of modules from independent suppliers. Together with other cluster tool standards, this is intended to result in the emergence of standards-compliant interoperable sub-systems. They should allow applications software to be developed which can assume the existence of these services and allow software products to be developed to offer them. The adoption of the standards described will greatly reduce the effort required to integrate cluster tool components from independent suppliers. Compliance requires support of a minimal but specific set of standard services. Cluster tool module communications address only communications with and among modules within a cluster tool and not the communications between the cluster tool and the factory. It is the modules and their interrelations which are modeled and not the cluster tool seen as a single equipment. The scope includes primary control services for material processing in process modules, material movement within the cluster tool, and material input/output with the factory. Support services also exist to enable recipe handling, resolution of exception conditions, event reporting, and data access. A reliable communications environment is required for distributed control and is specified in supplementary standards. This standard specifies the application of more general service standards as required within a cluster tool. This includes the limitations imposed by the cluster tool architecture and the fundamental functionality needed for compliance. The details of the general services, protocols, and communication environment elements are defined in the corresponding standards documents referenced.

Subordinate Document:

SEMI E38.1-95 - Communications Environment HSMS/SECS-II for Cluster Tool Module Communications

　

Referenced SEMI Standards

SEMI E21 — Cluster Tool Module Interface: Mechanical Interface and Wafer Transport Standard
SEMI E22 — Cluster Tool Module Interface: Transport Module End Effector Exclusion Volume Standard
SEMI E30 — Generic Model for Communications and Control

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