Device Level Abstraction, an Effective Bridge Between Object-Oriented Software
and Equipment Data.
Maintaining and updating semiconductor equipment controls requires significant resources and can keep a large portion of a company’s development team busy on maintenance tasks, rather than on new developments. This paper looks at some of the issues impacting semiconductor equipment control system costs, complexity and reliability. It also highlights an architecture that provides a clean separation between the object-oriented software layer and the hardware layer. As tool manufactures continue to look toward outsourcing while still leveraging their existing investment in software, this approach allows them to migrate towards low cost, reliable off-the-shelf hardware and control software. The result is greater equipment reliability and lower total cost of ownership.
and Equipment Data.
Maintaining and updating semiconductor equipment controls requires significant resources and can keep a large portion of a company’s development team busy on maintenance tasks, rather than on new developments. This paper looks at some of the issues impacting semiconductor equipment control system costs, complexity and reliability. It also highlights an architecture that provides a clean separation between the object-oriented software layer and the hardware layer. As tool manufactures continue to look toward outsourcing while still leveraging their existing investment in software, this approach allows them to migrate towards low cost, reliable off-the-shelf hardware and control software. The result is greater equipment reliability and lower total cost of ownership.
