The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 04, 2005
Filed:
Apr. 28, 2000
Sherry Cordova, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Terry L. Doyle, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Natalia Kroupnova, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Evgueni Lobovski, San Jose, CA (US);
Inna Louneva, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Richard C. Lyon, Boulder Creek, CA (US);
Yukari Nishimura, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Clari Nolet, Los Altos, CA (US);
Terry Reiss, San Jose, CA (US);
Woon Young Toh, San Jose, CA (US);
Michael E. Wilmer, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Sherry Cordova, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Terry L. Doyle, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Natalia Kroupnova, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Evgueni Lobovski, San Jose, CA (US);
Inna Louneva, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Richard C. Lyon, Boulder Creek, CA (US);
Yukari Nishimura, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Clari Nolet, Los Altos, CA (US);
Terry Reiss, San Jose, CA (US);
Woon Young Toh, San Jose, CA (US);
Michael E. Wilmer, Portola Valley, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a semiconductor processing device () including a tool () having one or more sensors, a primary data communication port () and a secondary data communication port (). A sensor data acquisition subsystem () acquires sensor data from the tool via the secondary port (). The data acquisition subsystem () acquires MES operation messages via the primary port (). Sensor data are communicated to a sensor processing unit () of a sensor data processing subsystem (). The sensor processing unit () processes and analyzes the sensor data. Additionally, the processing unit () can be adapted for making product or processing related decisions, for example activating an alarm if the process is not operating within control limits. In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for processing data from a wafer fab facility () including a plurality of tools () each having a primary data communication port () and a secondary data communication port ().