Recipe editor for editing and creating process recipes with parameter-level security for various kinds of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment

• US 20020055804A1
• Filed: 01/18/2002
• Published: 05/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synopsys Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Dinesh Goradia, Manish Mehta, Manoj Betawar, Nitin Parekh, Vrunda Bhagwat
• Inventors: Parekh, Nitin, Bhagwat, Vrunda, Mehta, Manish, Goradia, Dinesh, Betawar, Manoj
• Granted Patent: US 6,665,575 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/117
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41865 characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32097 Recipe programming for flexible batch
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36267 Process planning editor
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36542 Cryptography, encrypt, access, authorize with key, code, password
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45031 Manufacturing semiconductor wafers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A universal recipe editor is for off-line viewing and editing of semiconductor-manufacturing recipes. The universal recipe editor can read recipes from a wide variety of semiconductor-manufacturing machines from different manufacturers using recipe distributed object model (R-DOM) files. An R-DOM file is generated for each kind of recipe-file format to locate process parameters within proprietary recipe-file formats. The sequence of parameters in the R-DOM file matches the sequence in the recipe data file so that parameters may be mapped from recipe data files for display and editing. ASCII or binary recipe file formats are mapped from the recipe data file using R-DOM objects. Revision and authoring information is kept in a recipe information file for each recipe. Each line of the recipe data file can specify a different process parameter. Security or access rights for each parameter is added for each parameter by including security codes on each line in the R-DOM file. A security system is queried before each parameter is updated to determine if the user has sufficient privilege to update that parameter. Parameter-level security is thus provided for process recipes for a variety of semiconductor equipment. R-DOM files may contain other information not provided for by the recipe format, such as parameter-level functions and limits. User-defined validation functions that depend on multiple parameters can be executed as each parameter is edited

Claims

1. A semiconductor-process recipe editor comprising:

a data-presentation component having access to recipe data files, the recipe data files for specifying process parameters including temperature, process time, flow rates, and power levels for fab equipment that form electrical circuits onto semiconductor wafers, the recipe data files computer-readable by the fab equipment,

wherein the recipe data files are in various formats, each format specific to a specific process step performed by a piece of fab equipment;

a display component for generating a visual display of values of the process parameters to a user;

a behavioral component coupled to the data-presentation component, including;

file-validator means for validating access to a recipe data file by a user;

parameter-read means for reading a process parameter from the recipe data file at a location determined by a recipe data object model (R-DOM) file specific to the fab equipment controlled by the recipe data file;

parameter-display means, coupled to receive a process parameter from the parameter-read means, for sending the process parameter to the display component for display to the user;

parameter-security means, activated when the user requests to modify a selected process parameter, for reading a security indicator for the selected process parameter from the R-DOM file, the security indicator indicating when the user has a security level sufficient to modify the selected process parameter, wherein the user is prevented from modifying the selected process parameter when the security indicator indicates that the user does not have sufficient security to modify the selected process parameter;

parameter-edit means, activated when the parameter-security means clears the user to modify the selected process parameter, for displaying a dialog box on with the display component, the dialog box allowing the user to select a new value for the selected process parameter;

parameter-verify means, activated by the parameter-edit means when the user select a new value, for validating that the new value is valid for the selected process parameter, and displaying an error when the new value is not valid; and

parameter-write means, receiving the new value, for over-writing an existing value of the selected process parameter in the recipe data file with the new value at a location determined by a R-DOM file specific to the fab equipment controlled by the recipe data file;

whereby the recipe data file is directly written with new values of process parameters using the R-DOM file to determine the location of parameters in the recipe data file.

2. The semiconductor-process recipe editor of claim 1 wherein the parameter-verify means compares the new value to limits for the selected process parameter, the limits being stored in the R-DOM file, wherein limits in the R-DOM file are used to validate new parameter values.

3. The semiconductor-process recipe editor of claim 1 wherein the R-DOM file further comprises:

a sequence of process parameters indicating locations of the process parameters in the recipe data file; and

system parameters that are not present in the recipe data file, the system parameters being stored in the R-DOM file but not in the recipe data file, whereby additional parameters are stored in the R-DOM file that are not in the recipe data file.

4. The semiconductor-process recipe editor of claim 3 further comprising:

an index file containing a list of parameters in the R-DOM file and in the recipe data file, the index file including a pointer to the recipe data file and a pointer to the R-DOM file.