Integrating semiconductor process design and manufacture using a unified process flow representation

Concepts and data structures which can be used to allow effective linkage between manufacturing and design activities and hence facilitate improved process development are proposed. Central to the approach is the use of a common representation of the manufacturing process flow, used throughout the life-cycle of the process, including conceptual design, simulation, manufacturing, analysis, and maintenance. The overall architecture provides for the incorporation of models of the manufacturing equipment as well as idealized process models in a coherent way to support flexible, portable semiconductor-manufacturing processes. The authors identify the most important aspects of such a process-flow representation and describe the role of the representation in the computer-integrated manufacturing system in use in their semiconductor IC fabrication facility