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Discussion panel contributors include: Harvey Wohlwend, Manager International SEMATECH Manufacturing
Initiative, Mark Pendleton, Principal Software Architect, Asyst Technologies & Michael Arnold, Managing
Director and Program Manager fab services, PEER Group.

ABSTRACT

Building, ramping and operating 300mm fabs takes significant capital expenditure that puts pressure on all concerned to rapidly achieve desired returns on investment. The ability to rapidly ramp with sustainable high yields has become an essential aspect of 300mm fab operations. Interface A was conceived by the semiconductor industry to address important aspects of tool/process data collection that previous standards (SEC/GEM) were not designed to effectively handle. With experience garnered from the standards’ efforts to migrate to 300mm wafer processing, Interface A has been developed in quicker time with less revisions. However, the adoption of this vastly superior data port technology in 300mm fabs has not mirrored the pace of its development cycle. This discussion panel article brings together key players in the development and deployment of Interface A in an effort to understand how far down the road it is to fab-wide adoption.

Mark Osborne, Semiconductor Fabtech, Editor-in-Chief