2001 May 14 - ControlWORKS 2.9 is available

Plano, TX: May 14

Adventa announced today that testing has concluded on ControlWORKS Version 2.9, available this month to ControlWORKS licensees

ControlWORKS is used by many of the major semiconductor equipment OEM’s on their latest generation of 200 and 300mm production tools. “Released in 1993 to many U.S. equipment companies, ControlWORKS is now widely used by equipment manufacturers in the U.S., Europe and Japan,” said Richard Beaver, Director of Control Systems development at Adventa. “The primary intent of Version 2.9 is to deliver all the required communication standards for 300mm tools.”

The features include:

E39, Object Services
E30, GEM enhancements
E90, Substrate Tracking
E40, Process Job Management
E94, Control Job Management
E84, Parallel I/O Material Transfer
E87, Carrier Management
E99, Carrier Reader/Writer

The ControlWORKS machine control software is an object oriented machine control framework easily configured to control and manage all types of production tools in a wafer fab. To date, ControlWORKS has been applied to lithography exposure tools, litho tracks, cluster tools for deposition, etch and cleaning, wet benches, ion milling and CMP tools. “With the ControlWORKS machine control application, equipment OEM’s reduce their time to market for a “next generation” control, reduce control development and maintenance costs, and with release 2.9, our customers now deliver production tools that meet current SEMI standards for equipment control and communications,” said a representative for Adventa. Proprietary control systems from each equipment OEM will soon become “very unpopular, for several reasons,” according to Adventa's representative. “In terms of operation, maintenance and operator training, proprietary controls from each OEM place an additional burden on the fab. On the performance side, new demands for equipment control in terms of sensor integration, fault detection, run-to-run/model based process control, standards-based equipment tracking, web-based/remote equipment monitoring and evolving communications standards, place the OEM at a clear disadvantage.” Fiorletta further mentioned that equipment OEM’s that base their next generation control on the ControlWORKS application dramatically reduce the amount of control and control code they must develop and maintain a "clear advantage" in a very competitive market.