Information exchange requirements for capital equipment and facility infrastructure for semiconductor facilities

Semiconductor manufacturing facilities are very complex and capital intensive. Construction of these facilities often involves high levels of uncertainty, strict spending limits, aggressive schedules and fast track construction. Different disciplines generate and require a tremendous amount of building and manufacturing process information to support decisions that enable the successful design, construction and operation of these advanced facilities. In the highly fragmented construction industry, a majority of the information and processes throughout the life cycle are neither integrated nor interoperable and result in a high degree of redundancy. The semiconductor manufacturing industry in its constant quest to minimize the cost of these facilities and speed project delivery to match production to meet the available market window is implementing Building Information Modeling (BIM) to achieve these goals. This research focused on building an interoperable tool model to characterize the information exchange necessary between base build construction and tool installation in a semiconductor manufacturing facility. It examined existing standards to facilitate the data exchange process and standard development needed to assist in implementing intelligent facility and tool models. Information modeling for a semiconductor manufacturing facility is unique in that it is a process model (Tool Information Model) within a building model (Building Information Model), each supported more robustly by different interoperability standards. To facilitate flow of information between the different domains a mapping of the industry standards must be undertaken and translators developed for business use.