Design And Implementation Of Process Control Software For Silicon Epitaxial Equipment

As one of the crucial front-end process equipments for integrated circuitmanufacturing line, silicon epitaxial equipment is responsible for achieving theepitaxial process of wafers. By creating a new single crystal layer which requires theconductivity type, resistivity, thickness and the lattice structure to meet an exactcriterion on a given epitaxial substrate, it has a vital influence on the smoothlyrunning of follow-up process, even the quality of the final products. Taking certaintype silicon epitaxial equipment as the object of study, this paper is aiming tocomplete the design and development of the control software for the process reactionsystem.Firstly, the main functions of the process reaction system in the equipment, andits hardware structure are analyzed. And then combining the user’s requirement forprocess control software, this paper establishes the requirement model of processcontrol software with UML modeling language to offer the basis of the softwaredesign.Then, the basic concept and design principles of software architecture arepresented. On this basis, according to software requirement model, we establish theprocess control software’s architecture using hierarchical and sub-module designmethod, and build the static model of every level of the software by UML.To realize the design of software function module, this essay introduces thedesign patterns, of which the concept, classification and the common design patternare also studied. Then, according to functional modules’ characteristics that softwarearchitecture defined, we select appropriate patterns to complete the designation andestablish static model for each module with UML.In the end, with C#programming language, we accomplish the code written taskon.Net platform, and test the software from three separate levels, which are unit test,integration test and system test. Results show that the software based on requirementmodel is able to meet the requirements of user primely. Besides, the adoption of hierarchical and sub-module design method and design patterns makes equipmentcontrol software obtain the expansibility, maintainability, and the ability that respondrapidly for IC equipment market primely.Now being successfully used in the practical controlment of silicon epitaxialequipment, the software keeps the process reaction system running stably and reliably.The design methods and thoughts this paper adopted have a certain guiding andreferential significance for the design and development of equipment control softwarewhich has the similar characteristics.