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SAL DIIORIO, Brooks Automation Inc, Chelmsford, MA, USA JIM IRWIN, Irwin Consulting, Austin, TX, USA THOMAS POMORSKI, Productivity Management Associates, Windham, ME, USA

ABSTRACT

Conventional methods for analysing Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) on complex semiconductor production equipment are proving to be insufficient. In the 1980s a task force of industry volunteers, chartered by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), developed a set of standards for measuring RAM on semiconductor production equipment. The early versions of SEMI E10 did not provide measurement methodology for multipleprocess path, flexible-sequence processing equipment (commonly known as Cluster Tools). This paper is written on behalf of the SEMI Cluster Tool RAM Task Force and will present a proposed methodology for measuring RAM on cluster tools. Two case studies are included in this paper to demonstrate the application of the proposed cluster tool measurements.