Patent Application
20060047348
The present invention relates to a system and a method for dynamically controlling equipment actions, and more particularly, to the system and the method which can edit equipment actions and dynamically change the equipment actions without stopping the operation of the equipments.
Since an IC fabrication involves complicated manufacturing steps, expensive processing equipments, numerous product varieties and short product life cycles, IC makers have to apply computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) procedures for properly utilizing all kinds of manufacturing resources by controlling material and information flows. The so-called CIM is centralized in a database by means of computers, and then through a computer networking, passes the information stored in the database to users speedily, or integrates various automatic facilities into an integrated automatic production system. In January 1997, from an article in Semiconductor International Journal, it is reported that “the installation of a CIM system is mission-critical in the start-up of new fabs and in the on-going development of current ones”, wherein MES (Manufacturing Execution system) is the core of CIM.
The conventional MES generally implements an scenario-managing program exclusively with respect to each of the equipments by writing independent programs individually, and also codes the equipment actions directly into programs, i.e. each equipment has its own scenario-managing program for managing its equipment actions. In case the sequence of equipment actions of certain equipment or certain judgment rules thereof are changed, the scenario-managing program has to be re-edited and the related execution files has to be re-compiled. Meanwhile, while the scenario-managing program is renewed, the operation of the related equipments has to be stopped so as to successfully load in the scenario-managing program.
A conventional scenario-managing program generally includes developer-defined equipment control procedures, condition parameters and specific execution operations required under various conditions, wherein those specific operations are a set of functions developed by the developers in accordance with the program requirements. The conventional scenario-managing program has the shortcomings of that: the program function library developed by the developers does not use the object-oriented skill, thus resulting in difficulty in management and maintenance; while being deployed, related software has to be linked with the function library developed by the developers and to be re-compiled, so that the software is difficult to be renewed; since the software is developed especially for semiconductor industries, it is not applicable to other industries. Further, different scenario-managing programs have to be developed specifically for individual equipments even though the equipments are of the same type, so that the scenario-managing programs cannot be shared among the equipments.
To sum up, the conventional technology using scenario-managing programs needs to take a lot of manpower and material resource to modify and maintain the related programs; cannot dynamically change the equipment actions, and has to stop the operations of the equipments before renewing the scenario-managing programs, thus resulting production interruption.
Hence, there is an urgent need to develop a method and a system for dynamically controlling equipment actions, so that the equipment actions can be changed without stopping the operations of the equipments beforehand, and the scenario-managing programs can be conveniently developed and maintained.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a method and system equipments for dynamically controlling equipment actions, thereby dynamically changing the equipment actions without needing to stop the equipment operations, thus achieving the goal of plug-in and play.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method and system equipments for dynamically controlling equipment actions, thereby conveniently developing and maintaining the related scenario-managing programs, so that developers merely need to focus on the development of equipment action objects and on the scenario editing.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method and system equipments for dynamically controlling equipment actions, thereby developing scenario-editing results suitable for use in various types of equipment.
According to the aforementioned aspects, a system and a method for dynamically controlling equipment actions are provided for editing and controlling the equipment actions.
In the method for dynamically controlling equipment actions, a plurality of reference equipment-controlling means, a scenario editor and a data-condition setting object are first provided. The reference equipment-controlling means are used for controlling a plurality of reference actions of a plurality of reference equipments, and each of the reference equipment-controlling means includes a reference equipment driver. A scenario editor is used for defining at least one equipment action of an equipment, and assigns an equipment-controlling means suitable for the equipment from the reference equipment-controlling means. A data-condition setting object is used as a communication interface between the scenario editor and the equipment-controlling means, and the data-condition setting object controls the input/output (I/O) of the equipment-controlling means. Then, an editing-result file is provided for storing results edited in the scenario editor. After the scenario editor loads in the editing-result file, the scenario editor is executed to change the equipment actions of the equipment.
According to the present invention, the steps for executing the scenario editor are described as follows. At first, the equipment driver of the equipment-controlling means is executed. Then, a status number and status data are transmitted, and the status number and the status data required by the equipment action are delivered to the scenario editor for execution, when the equipment driver triggers the equipment action. After the scenario editor receives the scenario number and the scenario data, the scenario objects of the scenario editor are searched and compared to determine a proper scenario object. Then, if the step objects of the proper scenario object match with the scenario number and the scenario data, then the step objects are executed.
Further, in the method for dynamically controlling equipment actions according to the present invention, a new editing-result file is first generated, and the new editing-result file is used to replace the original editing-result file. The scenario editor is continuously executed after loading in the new editing-result file, thereby dynamically changing the equipment actions.
According to the present invention, the system for dynamically controlling equipment actions includes a plurality of reference equipment-controlling means, a scenario editor, a data-condition setting object and an editing-result file. The reference equipment-controlling means are used for controlling a plurality of reference actions of a plurality of reference equipments, and each of the reference equipment-controlling means includes an equipment driver. The scenario editor is used for defining or changing at least one equipment action of an equipment, wherein the scenario editor assigns an equipment-controlling means suitable for the equipment from the reference equipment-controlling means. The data-condition setting object is used as a communication interface between the scenario editor and the equipment-controlling means, wherein the data-condition setting object controls the input/output (I/O) of the equipment-controlling means. The editing-result file is used for storing results edited in the scenario editor, and the scenario editor is executed after loading in the editing-result file.
Hence, with the application of the present invention, the equipment actions can be dynamically changed without needing to stop the equipment operations beforehand, thus achieving the goal of plug-in and play; the related scenario-managing programs can be conveniently developed and maintained, and developers merely need to focus on the development of equipment action objects and on the scenario editing; and scenario-editing results developed in the editor scenario is suitable for use in various types of equipment.
The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present invention is featured in using a scenario editor to edit equipment actions and in executing the scenario editor to control equipment actions.
Referring to
For example, the following steps are input into the scenario editor 100 for describing the scenario of loading a wafer pod into an equipment: (1) moving in a wafer pod; (2) clamping the wafer pod; and (3) docking in the wafer pod. Then, the aforementioned steps are stored into the editing-result file 140. The editing-result file 140 can use XML (Extensible Markup Language) or a user-defined format, or can be a storage media of database. The reference equipment-controlling means are DLL (Dynamic Link Library) files, and have a plurality of action objects used for driving the equipment actions of the equipment 170. Further, the scenario editor 100 has a plurality of scenario objects, and each of the scenario objects has a plurality of step objects used for describing the equipment actions of a scenario. Thus, the reference equipment-controlling means and the scenario editor 100 all are designed with the concept of object-oriented skill. One of the features of the present invention is that the scenario editor 100 merely needs to focus on the task of editing the equipment actions regarding the equipment 170, and the task of driving the equipment 170 can be handled by the equipment-controlling means 160, wherein the equipment-controlling means 160 (selected from the reference equipment-controlling means) includes an equipment drive and an equipment communication protocol. Hence, the developers only need to focus on the development of the objects related to the equipment actions, and use the scenario editor 100 to edit the relationship between the equipment actions and the scenarios. Since the reference equipment-controlling means are developed the form of DLL (Dynamic Link Library) files, they do not need to be recompiled while being deployed. Meanwhile, the reference equipment-controlling means developed by the present invention are applicable to other equipments of the same type. Working together with various kinds of reference equipment-controlling means, the scenario editor 100 also can be used in different types of equipment.
Further, the scenario editor 100 can be connected to an event server used for notifying and handling the events occurring in the equipment 170, and can be connected to an alarm server used for notifying and handling the abnormal conditions of the equipment 170, and can be connected to a version-controlling server used for controlling the version of the editing-result file.
Hereinafter, the method of the present invention for dynamically controlling equipment actions is described.
Referring to
Referring to
The present invention is further featured in that the equipment does not need to be stopped and the equipment actions of the equipment can be dynamically changed, so as to achieve the goal of plug-in and play. While changing equipment actions, the present invention merely needs to use another editing-result file to replace the original editing-result file, and then enables the scenario editor to load in the new editing-result file. Referring to
Thereafter, step 310 is performed to replace the first editing-result file (Such as the aforementioned editing-result file 140) with the second editing-result file. Then, step 320 is performed to load the second editing-result file in the scenario editor, and then to continuously execute the scenario editor, so that the equipment actions can be dynamically changed without stopping the operation of the equipment, wherein the equipment-controlling means may notify the scenario editor to perform the step of loading in the second editing-result file.
Hence, it can be known from the aforementioned embodiments that the present invention has the following advantages. The present invention can dynamically change the equipment actions without stopping the equipment operations, thus having the function of plug-in and play; the related scenario-managing programs can be conveniently developed and maintained, so that developers merely need to focus on the development of equipment action objects and on the scenario editing; and the scenario results developed in the editor scenario is applicable to various types of equipment.
As is understood by a person skilled in the art, the foregoing preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrated of the present invention rather than limiting of the present invention. It is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, the scope of which should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structure.
