E6ML: XML for advanced technology facilities

The diversity and complexity of semiconductor production equipment creates challenges for facility design and tool installation. The information related to semiconductor production equipment installation drives everything in a fabrication facility. In the past, an industry standard for communicating this equipment information between semiconductor manufacturers, equipment suppliers and facility designers did not exist. As fast track construction has become common in the industry, the availability of information has become critical for design. Consequently, design firms have developed custom programs to reduce the time for compiling the production equipment information. As standards have facilitated better communication in various areas of everyday life, the semiconductor industry pushed towards developing a standard for equipment information. Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) have developed a document entitled SEMI E6, Guide for Semiconductor Installation Documentation that benefits the communication of equipment information in a standardized way. Currently SEMI E6 is in the paper format and a standard electronic version is needed for easier communication about production equipment information between the various project participants. A research initiative was undertaken by CREATE, a research consortium for advanced technology facility design and construction at Arizona State University, to develop an E6 Markup Language (E6ML) using XML technologies, because its platform independent nature enhances interoperability between different software applications. An XML Schema was used to model the information defined in the SEMI E6 standard. This paper outlines the development and benefits of E6ML for the semiconductor industry.