SEMI E41 - Exception Management (EM) Standard

Interactive exception handling enhances the error recovery ability while maintaining automated control in the factory. This standard addresses the communications needs within the semiconductor manufacturing environment with respect to equipment exception handling. This standard specifies capabilities to be provided by the exception agent for effective reporting and interaction with respect to abnormal situations in the equipment. It describes the concept of exception management, the behavior of the equipment in relation to interactive exception handling, and the messaging services which are needed to provide the functionality. The communications services defined here will enable the standards-based interoperability of independent systems. They shall allow application software to be developed which can assume the existence of these services and allow software products to be developed which offer them. Implementation of automated exception management will help reduce error recovery time and avoid changing from automatic to manual equipment control in many situations. The adoption of the standards described will greatly reduce the effort required to integrate compliant equipment components. Compliance requires a specific set of standard services.


Subordinate Standard:
SEMI E41.1-0996 — SECS-II Support for the Exception Management Standard

Referenced SEMI Standards
SEMI E5 — SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 2 Message Content (SECS-II)

SEMI E40 - Specification for Processing Management

Automated management and command of material processing in equipment is a crucial aspect enabling factory automation. This Standard addresses the communications needs within the semiconductor manufacturing environment with respect to the processing of material in equipment.

This Standard specifies the application of the appropriate processing to specified material received at the processing agent. It describes the concepts of material processing, the behavior of the equipment in relation to processing, and the messaging services which are needed to accomplish the task.

The communications services defined here enable standards-based interoperability of independent systems. They allow application software to be developed that can assume the existence of these services and allow software products to be developed which offer them.

Implementation of automated processing management will help eliminate the misprocessing of material. The adoption of the standards described will greatly reduce the effort required to integrate compliant equipment components and reduce time to set up for processing. Compliance requires a minimal but specific set of standard services.

The scope of this Standard is automated material processing based on discrete processing jobs. It provides the functionality required for process management for modules within a cluster tool. It may be applied to sub-systems of other multi-resource equipment, as well as to host control of many types of equipment.

This Standard supports individual management of jobs for identical processing of material within a group and concurrent processing of independent groups. Where material contains other material (such as carriers containing wafers), processing may be specified in terms of either material type.

A simple tuning mechanism is provided for limited feedforward and feedback control between process steps. A method is defined as taking advantage of recipe variable parameters. This is not expected to satisfy all closed-loop control requirements. Other mechanisms are anticipated with greater flexibility for late tuning and handling complex data.

This Standard does not provide services for receiving material for processing or disposing of it after processing is complete. Automation of material transfer is assumed to be provided through other services, such as those defined in applicable SEMI Standards.

This Standard presents a solution from the concepts and behavior down to the messaging services. It does not define the messaging protocol.

A messaging service includes the identification that a message shall be exchanged and a definition of the data which is contained in that message. It does not include information on the structure of the message, how the data is represented within the message, or how the message is exchanged. This additional information is contained within the message protocol.

The defined services may be applied to multiple protocols. Information on the mapping of processing management services to special protocols (e.g., SECS-II) are added as adjunct standards.

The services assume a communications environment in which a reliable connection has been established between the user of the services and the provider of the services. Establishing, maintaining, releasing a connection, and handling communication failures are beyond the scope of this Standard.

Subordinate Standard:

SEMI E40.1-1218 — Specification for SECS-II Support for Processing Management

Referenced SEMI Standards
SEMI E5 — Specification for SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 2 Message Content (SECS-II)
SEMI E30 — Specification for the Generic Model for Communications and Control of Manufacturing Equipment (GEM)
SEMI E39 — Specification for Object Services: Concepts, Behavior, and Services

SEMI E39 - Specification for Object Services: Concepts, Behavior, and Services

The purpose of the Object Services Standard (OSS) is to provide general terminology, conventions, and notation for describing behavior and data in terms of objects and object attributes. In addition, it provides basic services for reading object attributes, setting their values, and for asking for an object’s contents. This Standard is intended to be referenced by other Standards that define specific objects to reduce redundancy.


The scope of this Standard is to provide concepts, behavior, and services common to a variety of public objects.

Object models are common to multiple Standards. Object Services provide basic object-related definitions, and basic services for getting object attributes and setting attribute values, that can be used by all Standards defining public objects. These services allow the basic management of data based on objects.

The object services defined in this document may be included in the services provided by other Standards. They may also be provided independently of such other Standards.


Subordinate Standard (included):

SEMI E39.1-1218 — Specification for SECS-II Protocol for Object Services (OSS)

Referenced SEMI Standards
SEMI E5 — Specification for SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 2 Message Content (SECS-II)

SEMI E37 - Specification for High-Speed SECS Message Services (HSMS) Generic Services

High-Speed SECS Message Services (HSMS) provides a means for independent manufacturers to produce implementations that can be connected and interoperate without requiring specific knowledge of one another.

HSMS is intended as an alternative to SEMI E4 (SECS-I) for applications where higher speed communication is needed or when a simple point-to-point topology is insufficient. SEMI E4 (SECS-I) can still be used in applications where these and other attributes of HSMS are not required.

HSMS is also intended as an alternative to SEMI E13 (SECS Message Services) for applications where TCP/IP is preferred over OSI.

It is intended that HSMS be supplemented by subsidiary standards which further specify details of its use or impose restrictions on its use in particular application domains.

HSMS defines a communication interface suitable for the exchange of messages between computers in a semiconductor factory.


Subordinate Standards:

SEMI E37.1-0819 — Specification for High-Speed SECS Message Services Single Selected-Session Mode (HSMS-SS)

SEMI E37.2-95 (Withdrawn 1109) — High-Speed SECS Message Services General Session (HSMS-GS)

SEMI E36 - Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Information Tagging Specification

The purpose of Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Information Tagging is to define a markup philosophy, a markup framework, and an information markup which is rich enough to facilitate: electronic interchange and distribution of information; quality hardcopy printing and screen display of information consistent high-precision online searching and reuse and repurposing of information for such applications as integrating source material into training material and online support applications. The intent of this document is to create an information interchange specification, not an authoring specification or an electronic presentation specification. Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Information Tagging will define the markup necessary for exchanging documents electronically, for facilitating retrieval of information content, and for validating information interchanges.


Subordinate Standard:

SEMI E36.1-0704 - Specification for the Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Information Tagging Standard E36

SEMI E32 - Material Movement Management (MMM)

This Standard or Safety Guideline has an Inactive Status because the conditions to maintain Current Status have not been met. Inactive Standards or Safety Guidelines are available from SEMI and continue to be valid for use.

The automated material movement represents a significant milestone in the evolution of automation in semiconductor manufacturing. The standardization of the transfer process is critical to the economic viability of material movement automation. This Standard addresses the communications needs of the semiconductor manufacturing facility with respect to material movement.

This Standard addresses automated material movement on the semiconductor factory floor—the task of transporting objects (material, et al.) from one processing or storage location to another. It defines the concepts of material movement, the behavior of the equipment (including transfer devices) in relation to material movement, and the messaging services which are needed to accomplish the task.

Subordinate Standard:

SEMI E32.1-0997 - SECS-II Support for Material Movement

Referenced SEMI Standards
SEMI E5 — Specification for SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 2 Message Content (SECS-II)
SEMI E23 — Specification for Cassette Transfer Parallel I/O Interface
SEMI E30 — Specification for Generic Model for Communications and Control of SEMI Equipment (GEM)
SEMI E39 — Object Services Standard: Concepts, Behavior, and Services

SEMI E5 - Specification for SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 2 Message Content (SECS-II)

The SEMI Equipment Communications Standard Part 2 (SECS-II) defines the details of the interpretation of messages exchanged between intelligent equipment and a host. This Specification has been developed in cooperation with the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association Committee 12 on Equipment Communications.

It is the intent of this Standard to be fully compatible with SEMI E4, Equipment Communications Standard (SECS-I). It is also the intent to allow for compatibility with alternative message transfer protocols. The details of the message transfer protocol requirements are contained in § 6.

It is the intent of this Standard to define messages to such a level of detail that some consistent host software may be constructed with only minimal knowledge of individual equipment. The equipment, in turn, may be constructed with only minimal knowledge of the host.

The messages defined in the Standard support the most typical activities required for IC manufacturing. The Standard also provides for the definition of equipment-specific messages to support those activities not covered by the standard messages. While certain activities can be handled by common software in the host, it is expected that equipment-specific host software may be required to support the full capabilities of the equipment.

SECS-II gives form and meaning to messages exchanged between equipment and host using a message transfer protocol, such as SECS-I.

SECS-II defines the method of conveying information between equipment and host in the form of messages. These messages are organized into categories of activities, called streams, which contain specific messages, called functions. A request for information and the corresponding data transmission is an example of such an activity.

SECS-II defines the structure of messages into entities called items and lists of items. This structure allows for a self-describing data format to guarantee proper interpretation of the message.

The interchange of messages is governed by a set of rules for handling messages called the transaction protocol. The transaction protocol places some minimum requirements on any SECS-II implementation.

Referenced SEMI Standards
SEMI E4 — SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 1 Message Transfer (SECS-I)
SEMI E6 — Guide for Semiconductor Equipment Installation Documentation
SEMI E37 — High-Speed SECS Message Services (HSMS) Generic Services
SEMI E148 — Specification for Time Sychronization and Definition of the TS-Clock Object