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Abstract
In the majority of today's fabs, typical fab automation architectures are implemented based on a three-tier model. At the lowest level is the equipment layer. While this model has served the industry well in the past, it is not optimal moving forward. It does not provide the tight level of control required of the manufacturing process to meet expectations as to the reductions in process variability needed to meet and maintain yield and throughput requirements. The approach required now and in the future is based on the concept of factory-keyed equipment. Factory-keyed equipment is based on the tenet that all equipment in a semiconductor fab provide the availability, access and persistence required to enable effective data management and process control. This requires a change in the way data is valued by the semiconductor industry - from simply "data" consisting of points and parameters to a representation of complex system behaviors. By understanding the resource models of the systems that comprise a semiconductor fab, data becomes the core by which decision processes are enabled.