FUSION: a plan for developing a familiar user-system interface for the IC fabrication industry

The author discusses the concept of developing a set of industry guidelines for a familiar user-system interface (USI) for IC-fabrication equipment called FUSION (familiar user-system interface operation). A familiar USI across the industry would allow process engineers, operators, and service technicians to learn only one set of interface conventions. Successful standardization would lead to reduced training and operational errors, faster recipe editing, more rapid fault diagnosis and repair, and reduced personnel specialization. The author addresses the need for and potential benefits of FUSION, identifies some of the major technical challenges to developing such an interface, and proposes a developmental approach that would systematically create, test, and validate candidate designs