Controller and Method to Mediate Data Collection from Smart Sensors for Fab Applications

• US 20070150235A1
• Filed: 12/04/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MKS Instruments Incorporated
• Original Assignee: MKS Instruments Incorporated
• Inventors: Attwood, Mark, Lev-Ami, Uzi, Sifnatsch, Guenter
• Granted Patent: US 7,693,687 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/182
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41875 characterised by quality surveillance of production
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32181 Monitor production, assembly apparatus with multiple sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/37494 Intelligent sensor, data handling incorporated in sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45031 Manufacturing semiconductor wafers
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0221 Preprocessing measurements, e.g. data collection rate adjustment; Standardization of measurements; Time series or signal analysis, e.g. frequency analysis or wavelets; Trustworthiness of measurements; Indexes therefor; Measurements using easily measured parameters to estimate parameters difficult to measure; Virtual sensor creation; De-noising; Sensor fusion; Unconventional preprocessing inherently present in specific fault detection methods like PCA-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

The present invention relates to control of and data collection from sensors associated with tools. In particular, it relates to using a controller to mediate communications among a tool, sensors associated with the tool and data users, such as a host system or distributed processors. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.

Claims

1. A controller-aided method of monitoring processes or equipment performance in a semiconductor manufacturing operation, the method including:

identifying in a controller a plurality of smart sensors that are configured to recognize a plurality of context descriptions and to adapt their sensing of data from one or more semiconductor manufacturing devices, responsive to the context descriptions;

recognizing in the controller a current context of operation of a particular semiconductor manufacturing device;

transmitting to one or more particular smart sensors associated with the particular semiconductor manufacturing device the current context; and

receiving from the particular smart sensors data sensed by the smart sensors, responsive to the transmitted current context.