Development of a service management scheme for semiconductor factory management systems

There are hundreds of equipment in a semiconductor factory. In order to increase equipment utilization and improve product quality yield, more reliable services provided by equipment managers are expected. Therefore, it is essential to develop a reliable service management scheme (SMS) for semiconductor factory management systems. In this work, the SMS is developed by applying the Jini and contract technologies. A generic evaluator (GE) is also developed in the SMS to possess error-detection and function-replacement. The GE can also maintain the credit values of all the equipment managers. With the SMS, the process status and parameters of equipment managers in service are stored periodically. If an equipment manager malfunctions, the GE detects and confirms it and sends an event notice to the factory manager. Then, the factory manager finds a spare equipment manager and transfers the backup process status and parameters to the spare equipment manager. Finally, the spare equipment manager can continue monitor the manufacturing process starting from the point where the malfunctioned one left off. Evaluation of reliability improvement and an illustrative example of the SMS are also presented.