A Web Services-Based Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) Framework for Managing Spare Parts of Semiconductor Equipment

In a semiconductor foundry, equipment failure has long been recognized as a major cause of unpredicted breakdown which results in an excessive production loss. Equipment maintenance management is one of the essential tasks in semiconductor manufacturing. Due to the prosperity of Internet and IT, e-diagnostics and e-maintenance through the web have become important applications in the semiconductor industry. Web services (WSs) can assist the data integration in heterogeneous e-manufacturing systems to support faster and remote maintenance functions. In this paper, a WS-based collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) framework, namely WS-CPFR, is developed to collaboratively manage the logistics activities of spare parts in semiconductor equipment between equipment suppliers and semiconductor factories.      

Quantifying the environmental footprint of semiconductor equipment using the environmental value systems analysis (EnV-S)

Many environmental and health impacts from semiconductor processing are tied to the design of the manufacturing equipment. Evaluating solutions to properly treat effluents from semiconductor tools has become an increasingly important part of supply chain management and equipment procurement decisions. Accordingly, understanding the environmental footprint associated with equipment sets is essential for both equipment manufacturers and semiconductor manufacturers seeking to improve their products' environmental and financial performance. Equipment environmental performance must be evaluated within the context of the factory infrastructure and auxiliary equipment sets, with appropriate allocations of impacts from additional steps, both upstream and downstream of the wafer processing tools (chemical precursor delivery as well as byproduct treatment). Several challenges to environmental assessments arise from the nature of semiconductor manufacturing itself, due to short process life cycles, complexity of processes, and the need to track diverse inter-related impacts. Environmental value systems analysis (EnV-S) is an analytical tool to evaluate the environmental performance of semiconductor processing. EnV-S develops environmental assessments through a "bottom-up" analysis approach, assembling equipment environmental models to describe a system. This paper presents the use of EnV-S as a tool to quantify the environmental impact of a product or process by creating an operational signature along multiple dimensions of cost and environmental and health factors. The use of EnV-S is illustrated through a case study comparing systems that abate emissions from dielectric chemical vapor deposition processes.     

光学光刻设备发展和展望

在半导体技术和制造的发展中,半导体加工技术中最为关键的光刻技术和光刻工艺设备,必将发生显著的变化,本文将对光刻技术和光刻设备的发展历史进行简述,并展望未来光刻技术的趋势.     

Compound semiconductor equipment manufacturers perform well in VLSI survey

Compound semiconductor equipment manufacturers are well represented in this year’s VLSI customer satisfaction survey. Conducted annually, the survey looks at equipment performance and customer service, and asks semiconductor manufacturing equipment users to rank suppliers on a 10 point scale. Equipment performance is measured in terms of: build quality, cost of ownership, uptime, software, usable throughput, quality of results, and product performance. For customer service, the measures are: process support, field engineering support, spares support, support after sales, technical leadership in the supplier’s field and the supplier’s overall commitment to supporting its customers’ needs.This is a short news story only. Visit www.three-fives.com for the latest advanced semiconductor industry news.     

半导体微细加工中的刻蚀设备及工艺

与传统湿法腐蚀比较,干法刻蚀具有各向异性、对不同材料选择比差别较大、均匀性与重复性好、易于实现自动连续生产等优点。目前,刻蚀技术已经成为集成电路生产中的标准技术,干法刻蚀设备亦成为关键设备。本文对半导体生产中刻蚀的原理、分类,结合生产实际对刻蚀工艺进行了较系统的论述,并介绍了随着硅片尺寸的增大,工艺线条进入亚微米级时代,相应刻蚀设备的发展趋势。     

Integrated power saving for relay node and user equipment in LTE‐A

By introduction of relay nodes, LTE‐Advanced can provide enhanced coverage and capacity at cell edges and hot‐spot areas. The authors have been researching the issue of power saving in mobile communications technology such as WiMax and Long Term Evolution (LTE) for some years. Based on the previous idea of load‐based power saving, two strategies each with associated schemes to integrated relay nodes and user equipment in power saving are proposed in the paper. Simulation study shows the benefit of the proposed schemes in terms of better power saving than the standard‐based scheme at the cost of moderately increased delay. Extended discussion about the impact of different load distribution among user equipments and the impact of a worse backhaul link on power saving is also presented in the paper. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The capacity of aeronautical ad-hoc networks

Currently aeronautical communications are extremely limited by the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network standard, which does not support the inter-aircraft communications directly. To this end, we consider an aeronautical ad-hoc network based on a single flight path, whereby the aircrafts in the cruise stage can communicate with each other through multi-hop relays without the aid of ground stations. Due to the special topology of this network model, existing results based on the conventional mobile ad-hoc networks are not applicable for determining its capacity scaling law. In this paper, we prove the upper bound on the per-node capacity and construct a simple transmission scheduling scheme to achieve the lower bound.     

浅析贴片设备

由于表面组装技术不断地朝着小型化的方向发展 ,特别是在细间距、小直径的凸点和使用的焊剂等诸多因素的推动下 ,促使设备供应商根据倒装芯片技术的需求而研制新一代的贴装机。介绍了设备的制造厂家根据倒装芯片的特点 ,采用柔性 (软件 )方法和视觉系统等方案对现有的设备进行改型 ,从而实现了贴装设备的自动化。实践证明研制开发倒装芯片技术的自动组装技术可使生产率、材料和工艺设备取得明显的进步     

A medical emergency radio communications system (MERCS) for the state of West Virginia

The Medical Emergency Radio Communication System (MERCS) for OH-9 illustrates a new system of emergency medical services (EMS) communications planned for the State of West Virginia. MERCS will be the first multicounty system to be implemented in the State-and will serve as a model for other areas. MERCS will provide a centrally coordinated system of EMS communications for the mountainous rural area of Southern West Virginia. It will exploit the rules of the FCC that provide for use of multichannel equipments and a system of full channel (UHF) mobile relay stations. A vehicle fitted for MERCS will be able to communicate on a common basis through any mobile relay in the system. The mobile relays will provide for communication among all participating public safety agencies, utilizing cross banding where appropriate for interface with the systems of cooperating public safety agencies. The result will be a fully integrated system of communications for EMS.     

话音引接倍增设备的设计与实现

话音引接倍增设备是一种采用话音压缩编码和复分接技术、将一定数量的64 kbps PCM话音集中在窄带信道中传输的设备。介绍了话音引接倍增设备的应用背景和工作原理。针对具体的应用环境,设计了话音引接倍增设备技术方案,描述了设备组成和功能划分,并对语音压缩编码技术和回波抵消与透传双音多频联合处理进行了分析和设计。通过模拟测试环境和卫星链路功能测试,验证了方案设计合理可行,提高了传输链路的带宽利用率,设备各项功能指标满足应用需求。     

基于CORBA的多代理B/S系统的设计

CORBA是对象管理组织的分布式对象中间件应用标准，而Java是实现客户和服务器CORBA的理想语言。文章讨论了CORBA防火墙规范和Java沙箱安全机制，提出使用多代理技术以实现基于CORBA的分布式对象Web，从而构架出多层B／S系统。     

Redex: The ranging equipment diagnostic expert system

This paper describes REDEX, an advanced prototype expert system that diagnoses hardware failures in the Ranging Equipment (RE) at NASA's Ground Network tracking stations. REDEX will help the RE technician identify faulty circuit cards or modules that must be replaced, and thereby reduce troubleshooting time. It features a highly graphical user interface that uses color block diagrams and layout diagrams to illustrate the location of a fault. A semantic network knowledge representation technique was used to model the design structure of the RE. A catalog of generic troubleshooting rules was compiled to represent heuristics that are applied in diagnosing electronic equipment. Specific troubleshooting rules were identified to represent additional diagnostic knowledge that is unique to the RE Over 50 genetic and 250 specific troubleshooting rules have been derived. REDEX is implemented in Prolog on an IBM PC AT-compatible workstation. Block diagram graphics displays are color-coded to identify signals that have been monitored or inferred to have nominal values, signals that are out of tolerance, and circuit cards and functions that are diagnosed as faulty. A hypertext-like scheme is used to allow the user to easily navigate through the space of diagrams and tables. Over 50 graphic and tabular displays have been implemented. REDEX is currently being evaluated in a stand-alone mode using simulated RE fault scenarios. It will soon be interfaced to the RE and tested in an online environment. When completed and fielded, REDEX will be a concrete example of the application of expert systems technology to the problem of improving performance and reducing the lifestyle costs of operating NASA's communications networks in the 1990's.     

TD-SCDMA直放站无线通信控制方案开发与实现

在TD—SCDMA系统中,直放站实现低成本的室内覆盖和减少信号盲区,是不可或缺的一部分。直放站系统要通过无线通信模块进行控制信息的交互,无线通信控制方案的实现是直放站系统开发中极为重要的一环。基于成熟的TD—SCDMA终端基带芯片的直放站无线通信控制方案,需要对硬软件配置做出相应的调整。通信控制方案中一个重要环节就是协定无线通信模块与直放站监控系统的串口通信接口,设计串口通信软件模块,串口通信协议的设定后,就可以经济、并快速地完成无线通信控制方案的实现。     

Resource Reuse for D2D Communication in LTE Networks by Efficient Grouping

Wireless Personal Communications - Device to device (D2D) communication is a key technology of 5G mobile communications. It allows devices to communicate by using direct links, rather than...     

一种用于5G前传的半有源波分复用方案

5G作为新一代移动通信技术,具有大带宽、低时延和海量连接等特点。5G可为用户带来革命性的业务体验,也能开发新型商业模式,为通信运营商提供持续增长的新动力。为满足5G技术的三大业务场景的需求,需要前传技术综合考虑网络资源、成本和技术成熟度等各方面因素,满足低时延、高可靠性的要求。并本文通过对现有前传技术的分析,明确原有技术的优缺点,提出了半有源波分复用方案。该方案采用非对称的设备形态,适应C-RAN组网,利用现有成熟技术,在提供网管和保护恢复功能的基础上,保证技术简洁,降低设备成本。该方案与现有前传方案相比,具有明显的综合优势。     

A Novel Virtual Metrology Scheme for Predicting CVD Thickness in Semiconductor Manufacturing

In an advanced semiconductor fab, online quality monitoring of wafers is required for maintaining high stability and yield of production equipment. The current practice of only measuring monitor wafers may not be able to timely detect the equipment-performance drift happening in-between the scheduled measurements. This may cause defects of production wafers and, thereby, raise the production cost. In this paper, a novel virtual metrology scheme (VMS) is proposed for overcoming this problem. The proposed VMS is capable of predicting the quality of each production wafer using parameters data from production equipment. Consequently, equipment-performance drift can be detected promptly. A radial basis function neural network is adopted to construct the virtual metrology model. Also, a model parameter coordinator is developed to effectively increase the prediction accuracy of the VMS. The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process in semiconductor manufacturing is used to test and verify the effectiveness of the proposed VMS. Test results show that the proposed VMS demonstrates several advantages over the one based on back-propagation neural network and can achieve high prediction accuracy with mean absolute percentage error being 0.34% and maximum error being 1.15%. The proposed VMS is simple yet effective, and can be practically applied to construct the prediction models of semiconductor CVD processes.     

Statistical process control in semiconductor manufacturing

The author presents a brief survey of standard SPC (statistical process control) schemes, and illustrates them through examples taken from the semiconductor industry. These methods range from contamination control to the monitoring of continuous process parameters. It is noted that, even as SPC is transforming IC production, the peculiarities of semiconductor manufacturing technology are transforming SPC. Therefore, the author describes novel SPC applications which are now emerging in semiconductor production. These methods are being developed to monitor the short production runs that are characteristic of flexible manufacturing. Additional SPC techniques suitable for in situ multivariate sensor readings are also discussed     

移动WiMAX技术分析和展望

移动WiMAX借助OFDMA等多项先进技术提供优质的移动宽带服务。它的设备制造、测试和认证发展迅速。移动WiMAX与3G技术互补,与E3G则呈现出竞争态势,但需求指标和核心技术的相似使其与后者的融合成为可能。     

Middleware for integration of legacy electrical equipment into smart grid infrastructure using wireless sensor networks

To improve the efficiency of electricity distribution, smart grids allow communication between their devices. Pieces of legacy equipment operating in the distribution network do not communicate using any commercial protocol, such as DNP3, IEC 61850, or Modbus. Thus, herein, a middleware is proposed to allow the integration of the legacy electrical equipment into a smart grid using wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Each piece of legacy electrical equipment is connected to a sensor node, and the WSN sink node runs a middleware to enable the integration of this device with a smart grid, according to the commercial communication protocols. The middleware model is proposed to guide users in the development of a WSN‐based system for integrating electrical equipment into a smart grid. The middleware was validated in a real environment, which is related to the concept of power metering. Experiments were performed using the software supervisory control and data acquisition and distributed test manager to validate the communication between the electrical equipment and the computer of the power substation control centre.     

Diagnosis of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and processes

This paper describes part of the research performed during the Microelectronic Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program on techniques for the diagnosis of equipment malfunctions and misprocessing during semiconductor manufacturing. The main motivation of this work was to investigate techniques for rapid diagnosis. Towards this goal, a number of equipment-level diagnosis techniques are described. These techniques use equipment models to diagnose equipment malfunctions at a given process step. The results obtained by applying these diagnosis approaches are very encouraging. The various approaches were able to diagnose a number of faults that were deliberately introduced to test the algorithms and the equipment faults that developed during the final demonstration of the MMST program. These techniques were applied to a TI-built Advanced Vacuum Processor (AVP) and an Applied Materials Precision reactor AMT 5000