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- Nachgewiesen in: USPTO Patent Applications
- Sprachen: English
- Document Number: 20100023151
- Publication Date: January 28, 2010
- Appl. No: 12/390395
- Application Filed: February 20, 2009
- Assignees: Asyst Technologies, Inc (Fremont, CA, US)
- Claim: 1. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system, comprising: a fabrication facility configuration module defined to virtually model physical systems and attributes of the fabrication facility to be monitored; a data acquisition module defined to interface with the physical systems of the fabrication facility and to gather operational data from the physical systems; a visualizer module defined to collect and aggregate the operational data gathered from the physical systems, and further defined to process the operational data into a format suitable for visual rendering; and a graphical user interface controlled by the visualizer module within which the processed operational data is displayed within a visual context of the fabrication facility.
- Claim: 2. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system as recited in claim 1, wherein the fabrication facility configuration module provides for construction of a facility logic model that defines hierarchies and relationships between components within the fabrication facility.
- Claim: 3. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system as recited in claim 2, wherein the fabrication facility configuration module generates a graphical user interface through which tools and icons are provided for virtual modeling of physical systems and attributes of the fabrication facility and of hierarchies and relationships between components within the fabrication facility.
- Claim: 4. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system as recited in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition module is defined to provide a data agent and a control agent for each system within the fabrication facility, wherein the data agent and control agent for a given system is customized to interface with the given system without requiring modification of the given system and without interfering with normal operation of the given system.
- Claim: 5. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system as recited in claim 4, wherein the data agent is defined to acquire data from the given system, and wherein the control agent is defined to direct communication of the acquired data to the visualizer module.
- Claim: 6. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system as recited in claim 5, wherein the data acquisition module provides a respective data agent and controller agent for each of a material control system, a manufacturing execution system, and an automated material handling system.
- Claim: 7. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system as recited in claim 6, wherein the data acquisition module further provides a respective data agent and controller agent for each of a dispatch system, an engineering and manufacturing database, a stocker system, an overhead hoist vehicle controller system, a conveyer system, and a processing tool system.
- Claim: 8. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system as recited in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition module and visualizer module are defined to gather and process operational data to enable real-time display of fabrication facility operation within the graphical user interface.
- Claim: 9. A semiconductor fabrication facility visualization system as recited in claim 1, further comprising: a database defined to store data associated with operations of the fabrication facility configuration module, the data acquisition module, the visualizer module, and the graphical user interface.
- Claim: 10. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system, comprising: a visualizer module defined to collect, filter, and present fabrication facility data through a graphical user interface; an analyzer module defined to analyze data collected by the visualizer module to resolve queries regarding fabrication facility performance; and an optimizer module defined to control systems within the fabrication facility in response to data collected by the visualizer module, data generated by the analyzer module, or a combination thereof.
- Claim: 11. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the visualizer module is defined to integrate and present data from disparate independent sources in the fabrication facility.
- Claim: 12. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the visualizer module is defined to collect and code rules of the fabrication facility, wherein the rules include both business rules and operational rules.
- Claim: 13. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the analyzer module is defined to identify data patterns relevant to fabrication facility problems, deficiencies, or inefficiencies, and is further defined to provide tools for creating and exploring hypotheses about fabrication facility performance.
- Claim: 14. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 13, wherein the analyzer module is defined to perform comparative analyses between different fabrication facility operational periods, basic value analyses corresponding to particular operational instances, exploratory analyses, fabrication facility simulations, and fabrication facility rule change analyses.
- Claim: 15. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the analyzer module includes a traffic congestion monitoring module defined to record, analyze, and report on vehicle density within a region of the fabrication facility, and further defined to identify precursors to congestion events and issue corresponding notifications to enable mitigation of pending congestion events.
- Claim: 16. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the analyzer module includes a traffic state analysis module defined to calculate quality of service metrics that characterize traffic congestion within the fabrication facility.
- Claim: 17. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the analyzer module includes an E84 event monitoring agent defined to acquire E84 event data and perform trending analyses on the acquired E84 event data.
- Claim: 18. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the analyzer module includes a raw process throughput analysis module define to perform internal tool throughput analysis and reporting.
- Claim: 19. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the analyzer module includes operational bottleneck and work-in-progress tracking agents defined to calculate queue sizes by operation, tool group, and tool, and further defined to analyze processing load bursts and corresponding effects on tool queue reserve.
- Claim: 20. A semiconductor fabrication facility productivity system as recited in claim 10, wherein the optimizer module can be operated in either a suggestion mode or in an action mode.
- Claim: 21. A method for monitoring semiconductor fabrication facility operations, comprising: acquiring operational data from different systems within a fabrication facility; aggregating the acquired operational data; and rendering the aggregated operational data in a graphical user interface within a visual context of the fabrication facility.
- Claim: 22. A method for monitoring semiconductor fabrication facility operations as recited in claim 21, wherein the operational data is acquired without interfering with normal operation of the different systems within the fabrication facility.
- Claim: 23. A method for monitoring semiconductor fabrication facility operations as recited in claim 21, wherein the visual context of the fabrication facility shows icons for different systems from which operational data is acquired, and wherein the aggregated operational data for the different systems is simultaneously displayed in relation to the icons for the different systems.
- Claim: 24. A method for monitoring semiconductor fabrication facility operations as recited in claim 21, wherein operational data is acquired for an automated material handling system to include real-time position data for various conveyances within the fabrication facility.
- Claim: 25. A method for monitoring semiconductor fabrication facility operations as recited in claim 24, wherein the real-time position data for various conveyances within the fabrication facility is used to provide a real-time update of a visual rendering of the various conveyances on a route map within the graphical user interface.
- Current U.S. Class: 700/105
- Current International Class: 06; 06; 06; 06
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