Tool to report the status and drill-down of an application in an automated manufacturing environment

• US 7,805,639 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2007
• Issued: 09/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Moore, Gary R., Wong, Justin W., Mock, Michael W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Duncan; Marc
• Application Number:
  US11/839,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20090049011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,139 Days
• Field of Search: 714/47, 700/110, 700/121, 702/183, 702/185
• US Class Current: 714/47.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/064 involving time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5016 based on statistics of service availability, e.g. in percentage or over a given time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning

Abstract

Disclosed are embodiments that provide near real-time monitoring of a control application in a manufacturing environment in order to detect and determine the root cause of faults within the control application. The embodiments monitor the flow of data within the control application during certain events (i.e., certain transactions, stages, process steps, etc.). By comparing a dataflow path for a near real-time event with historical dataflow path records, dataflow interruptions (i.e., fails) within the control application can be detected. By determining the location of such a dataflow interruption, the root cause of the control application fail can be determined. Additionally, the invention can generate summary reports that quantify the performance and/or the effectiveness of the control application. These summary reports can further be generated with drill downs to provide a user with direct access to the records upon which the reports were based.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a control application, said method comprising:

accessing a plurality of data sources for said control application;

retrieving, from said data sources, data regarding events occurring in a manufacturing environment monitored by said control application;

compiling said data to generate, for said events, records of dataflow paths within said control application;

storing said records in a data storage device;

analyzing said records to detect a dataflow interruption within said control application; and

generating a summary report of said events based on said records, wherein said summary report quantifies at least one of performance and effectiveness of said control application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said analyzing comprises comparing a record of a current event to records of prior events to detect said dataflow interruption.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said analyzing further comprises analyzing said records to determine a location within said control application of said dataflow interruption.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating of said summary report comprises quantifying said performance of said control application by indicating in said summary report at least a percentage of said events for which said control application should have collected said data and failed out of a total number of said events.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating of said summary report comprises quantifying said effectiveness of said control application by indicating in said summary report at least a percentage of said events for which said control application had inhibit ability out of a total number of said events.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating of said summary report further comprises generating said summary report with drill down functions allowing a user to link directly to said records via a graphical user interface.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said analyzing further comprises analyzing said records in response to at least one of a specific query and a continual query.

8. A method for monitoring a fault detection and classification (FDC) application, said method comprising:

accessing a plurality of data sources for said fault detection and classification (FDC) application;

retrieving, from said data sources, data regarding wafer-chamber passes in an integrated circuit manufacturing environment monitored by said fault detection and classification (FDC) application;

compiling said data to generate, for said wafer-chamber passes, records of dataflow paths within said fault detection and classification (FDC) application;

storing said records in a data storage device records;

analyzing said records to detect a dataflow interruption within said fault detection and classification (FDC) application; and

generating a summary report of said wafer-chamber passes based on said records, wherein said summary report quantifies at least one of performance and effectiveness of said fault detection and classification (FDC) application.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said analyzing comprises comparing a record of a current wafer-chamber pass to records of prior wafer-chamber passes to detect said dataflow interruption.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said analyzing further comprises analyzing said records to determine a location within said fault detection and classification application of said dataflow interruption.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein said generating of said summary report further comprises quantifying said performance of said fault detection and classification (FDC) application by indicating in said summary report at least a percentage of said wafer-chamber passes for which said fault detection and classification (FDC) application should have collected said data and failed out of a total number of said wafer-chamber passes.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said generating of said summary report further comprises quantifying said effectiveness of said fault detection and classification (FDC) application by indicating in said summary report at least a percentage of said wafer-chamber passes for which said control application had inhibit ability out of a total number of said wafer-chamber passes.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein said generating of said summary report further comprises generating said summary report with drill down functions allowing a user to link directly to said records via a graphical user interface.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein said analyzing further comprises analyzing said records in response to at least one of a specific query and a continual query.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein said quantifying comprises quantifying said at least one of said performance and said effectiveness of said fault detection and classification (FDC) application as by at least one of tool type, technology, and technology center.

16. A system for monitoring a control application in a manufacturing environment, said system comprising:

a data retriever adapted to access a plurality of data sources for said control application, to retrieve, from said data sources, data regarding events occurring in said manufacturing environment;

a data compiler adapted to compile said data so as to generate, for said events, records of dataflow paths within said control application;

a data storage device, wherein said data compiler is further adapted to store said records in said data storage device;

a records analyzer adapted to detect a dataflow interruption within said control application based on an analysis of said records; and

a summary report generator adapted to generate a summary report of said events based on said records, wherein said summary report quantifies at least one of performance and effectiveness of said control application.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said summary report comprises at least a percentage of said events for which said control application should have collected said data and failed out of a total number of said events so as to quantify said performance of said control application.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein said summary report comprises at least a percentage of said events during a given period of time for which said control application had inhibit ability out of a total number of said events so as to quantify said effectiveness of said control application.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising a graphical user interface for displaying said summary report, wherein said summary report generator is further adapted to generate said summary report with drill down functions so as to allow a user to link via said graphical user interface directly to said records.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein said records analyzer is further adapted to perform said analysis in response to at least one of a specific query and a continual query.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein said analysis comprises a comparison between a record of a current event and records of prior events to detect said dataflow interruption.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein said analyzer is further adapted to determine a location of said dataflow interruption.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein said control application comprises a fault detection and classification application and wherein each of said events comprises a wafer-chamber pass.

24. The system of claim 16, wherein said summary report generator is further adapted to quantify said at least one of said performance and said effectiveness of said control application by at least one of tool type, technology, and technology center.

25. A program storage device readable by computer and tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform a method of monitoring a control application, said method comprising:

accessing a plurality of data sources for said control application and retrieving, from said data sources, data regarding events occurring in a manufacturing environment monitored by said control application;

compiling said data to generate, for said events, records of dataflow paths within said control application;

storing said records in a data storage device;

analyzing said records to detect dataflow interruption within said control application; and

generating a summary report of said events based on said records, wherein said summary report quantifies at least one of performance and effectiveness of said control application.

26. A service for monitoring a control application, said service comprising:

accessing a plurality of data sources for said control application;

retrieving, from said data sources, data regarding events occurring in a manufacturing environment monitored by said control application;

compiling said data to generate, for said events, records of dataflow paths within said control application;

storing said records in a data storage device;

analyzing said records to detect a dataflow interruption within said control application; and

generating a summary report of said events based on said records, wherein said summary report quantifies at least one of performance and effectiveness of said control application.