PROCESSES RELATING TO CLEANSPACE FABRICATORS

The present invention provides various methods for utilizing aspects of cleanspace fabricators. In some embodiments methods related to the development of tooling in applications or “apps” type models are discussed. In other embodiments methods related to product development based on crowd sourcing are discussed. In other embodiments licensing models for design blocks, process flows, assembly processing and assembly related intellectual processing are discussed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In patent art by the same inventive entity, the innovation of the cleanspace fabricator has been described. In place of a cleanroom, fabricators of this type may be constructed with a cleanspace that contains the wafers, typically in containers, and the automation to move the wafers and containers around between ports of tools. The cleanspace may typically be much smaller than the space a typical cleanroom may occupy and may also be envisioned as being turned on its side. In some embodiments, the processing tools may be shrunk which changes the processing environment further.

InFIG. 1, item100, a depiction of the changes possible with a cleanspace fabricator is described. In Item110, a typical cleanroom based fabrication site is depicted. Item111, may represent the cleanroom, item112may represent office space for the various functions to support the production, item113may represent facilities to control and generate the necessary utilities including clean room air which may be temperature and humidity controlled, item114may represent facilities for gasses and chemicals. Item115may represent safety and fire control operations.

Continuing onFIG. 1, the advantages of a cleanspace fabricator allow for less capacity needs for the support facilities. Especially when the fabricator is focused in small volumes these facilities may be greatly reduced. The representation of item120shows the cleanroom space alone where the tools are now seen through the ceiling of the facility which would be where the cleanroom air filters would typically be located. The size of the cleanroom is still roughly6football fields in size. This depiction may represent the reduced site services aspect of cleanspace fabricators.

In a cleanspace fabricator, the cleanroom is replaced with the cleanspace. Proceeding to item130inFIG. 1, a representation of a change in the cleanroom is depicted. In some embodiments, a cleanspace may be envisioned by the process of rotating a fab's cleanroom on its side. After this, the dimension of the thus rotated cleanroom may then be shrunk by up to a factor of tenfold. The tools are represented as being removed from the cleanroom environment and “hovering” about the facility. This changed cleanspace dimension is one of the reasons for the reduced amount of site service requirements.

Proceeding further, item140demonstrates the placement in some embodiments of tooling in a vertical dimension. The tools that were hovering above the facility are now shown as being oriented next to the cleanspace environments in a vertically oriented or stacked orientation. These tool all about both the cleanspace and also a region external to the cleanspace and thus all exist on the periphery. Therefore, item140may represent the peripheral tool access aspect of the cleanspace fabricator. What may be apparent is that this type of orientation of the tooling also allows for the further shrinkage of the fabricator dimension required.

In some embodiments, a shrunken version of the fab due only to the orientation of tooling may result even when the same numbers of tools are utilized. However, due to a variety of aspects of the cleanspace fabricator, there may be operational modes that make business sense to organize a minimal number of tools into a cleanspace type facility. Such a reduced number of tools may result in the reduced fab footprint as depicted in item150. However, still further embodiments of the operational and business models may derive if the tools themselves are reduced in size so that they process wafers that are roughly2inches in diameter or at least significantly smaller than standard dimensions. Another point made in the depiction of item150shows that the tools may be shrunken to create another version of the cleanspace fabricator.

Item160may show the further reduced footprint of a cleanspace fabricator whose purpose in some embodiments may be a focus on activities of small volume. In these type of embodiments, the small tools occupy less space than large tools further reducing the space of the cleanspace and thus the site support aspects of fabricators the extreme of which has been depicted in the figure starting with item120. If such a prototype fabricator as item160is placed within the original footprint item170it may be clear the significant scale differences that are possible.

Description of a Linear, Vertical Cleanspace Fabricator

There are a number of types of cleanspace fabricators that may be possible with different orientations. For the purposes of illustration one exemplary type where the fab shape is planar with tools oriented in vertical orientations may be used. This type may result in the depictions shown inFIG. 1. An exemplary representation of what the internal structure of these types of fabs may look like is shown in a partial cross section representation inFIG. 2, item200. Item210may represent the roof of such a fabricator where some of the roof has been removed to allow for a view into the internal structure. Additionally, items220may represent the external walls of the facility which are also removed in part to allow a view into external structure.

In the linear and vertical cleanspace fabricator ofFIG. 2there are a number of aspects that may be observed in the representation. The “rotated and shrunken” cleanspace regions may be observed as items215. The occurrence of item215on the right side of the figure is depicted with a portion of its length cut off to show its rough size in cross section. The cleanspaces lie adjacent to the tool pod locations. Depicted as item260, the small cubical features represent tooling locations within the fabricator. These locations are located vertically and are adjacent to the cleanspace regions (215). In some embodiments a portion of the tool, the tool port, may protrude into the cleanspace region to interact with the automation that may reside in this region.

Items250may represent the fabricator floor or ground level. On the right side, portions of the fabricator support structure may be removed so that the section may be demonstrated. In between the tools and the cleanspace regions, the location of the floor250may represent the region where access is made to place and replace tooling. In some embodiment, as in the one inFIG. 2, there may be two additional floors that are depicted as items251and252. Other embodiments may have now flooring levels and access to the tools is made either by elevator means or by robotic automation that may be suspended from the ceiling of the fabricator or supported by the ground floor and allow for the automated removal, placement and replacement of tooling in the fabricator.

Description of a Chassis and a Toolpod or a Removable Tool Component

In other patent descriptions of this inventive entity (patent application Ser. No. 11/502,689 which is incorporated in its entirety for reference) description has been made of the nature of the toolPod innovation and the toolPod's chassis innovation. These constructs, which in some embodiments may be ideal for smaller tool form factors, allow for the easy replacement and removal of the processing tools. Fundamentally, the toolPod may represent a portion or an entirety of a processing tool's body. In cases where it may represent a portion, there may be multiple regions of a tool that individually may be removable. In either event, during a removal process the tool may be configured to allow for the disconnection of the toolPod from the fabricator environment, both for aspects of handling of product substrates and for the connection to utilities of a fabricator including gasses, chemicals, electrical interconnections and communication interconnections to mention a few. The toolPod represents a stand-alone entity that may be shipped from location to location for repair, manufacture, or other purposes.

Process of an Application or “Apps” Model for Tool Design Using the toolPod Construct.

These toolPod constructs represent a novel departure from the state of the art in fabricator tooling where a tool is assembled (sometimes on a fabricator floor) and rests in place until it is decommissioned for that Fabricator. Because there are many similar functions that process tools require to operate, the toolPod for many tool types can be exactly the same with the exception of a region where the different processing may occur. In some other cases, the tool type may require different functions in the toolPod and Chassis like for example the handling of liquid chemicals as an example. Even in toolPod's of this type there may be a large amount of commonality in one type of toolPod to another. This creates an infrastructure where the numbers of common components in processing tools in the industry can be large allowing for economies of scale. Additionally, these toolPods, which may result in economical costs due to the economies of scale mentioned, may provide the ideal infrastructure both for a common definition of tooling solutions for common tasks as well as an economical starting point for the development of new types of tooling or different models of existing types of tooling.

Referring toFIG. 3, a representation to how these aspects of toolPods may allow for a model of tool development that resembles an “Application model” is made. As shown inFIG. 3, item300, a company or entity may desire to develop a new model of tooling for a purpose. In an entirely exemplary sense, item310may represent a desire of a company to develop reactive ion etch (perhaps in some cases for the production of Graphene based electronic devices) tooling for the cleanspace fabricator environment using a standard type of toolPod. In step320and325, a standard toolPod may be provided to the development entity with a significant portion of the tooling infrastructure not related to the exact process definition being defined already. The development entity may add their “reactor” elements to the standard toolPod thus defining a new type of Reactive Ion Etch tooling, as shown in steps330and335. In some embodiments, the thus formed tool may be provided to the entity which provides the toolPods and fabricators related to them in order for the tool to be studied and verified or qualified in terms of the definition of the tooling being useful, safe or acceptable based on other grounds. When the tool is submitted for this qualification or ratification, items340and345, the toolPod and Fab entity may determine that the tooling is good. In some models, the entity may provide its ratification as a service to the development entity. In alternative models, the toolPod and Fab creating entity may offer the newly developed tooling as a product itself. In still alternative models, the toolPod and Fab entity may provide only the toolPod and Chassis themselves or even the designs for the toolPods and Chassis as their portion of the model. There may be numerous different models that represent an application type model for the use of toolPods, Chassis for toolPods, and Cleanspace based Fabricators.

InFIG. 4, item400, a flow chart presents the process of creating process tools in a cleanspace fabricator environment with toolPods and chassis components. At step410, a general offering of toolPods to the market place may occur. At some time after, or as an independent starting event a potential manufacturer of a tool may contact a toolPod supplier with the intent to provide a tool incorporated into the toolPod at step420. Throughout this discussion mention has been made to entities called toolPods which may have their own definitions nevertheless there should be no limitation on the general concepts by the use of this term is intended, and any type of device that has the principal of creating a replaceable environment for processing tools should create additional diversity in the utility of the concepts discussed herein

In some embodiments, the provider of the toolPod at step430may interact with the potential supplier to determine if tailoring of the standard toolPod offering is warranted. There may also be a process where the standard toolPods are offered and modifications to add additional function may need to be performed by the potential tool vendor. In some embodiments, changes to the toolPod design may warrant a specialized chassis that mates to the toolPod. In addition there may be some embodiments where multiple toolPod elements mate with a chassis and the alterations may occur to a second toolPod element that mates to a tool Chassis in the standard fabricator definitions.

At step440, the potential vendor may have designed their tool and created a prototype copy of the tool. In some embodiments they may have tested their process tool in the toolPod by mounting it to a chassis that is external to a fabricator that may be called a test or development stand. When the tool is provided to the toolPod vendor or in equivalent manners to a cleanspace fabricator vendor or operator, it may be requested at step450that the tool be tested for various aspects including safety, functionality, interaction with electronic and software systems and various such aspects.

In an alternative embodiment, at440the tool vendor may provide to the toolPod vendor or cleanspace fabricator vendor or cleanspace fabricator operator just the portions of the tool that need to be added to a toolPod design to make a functional tool. This tool may then be assembled by the various entities and at step450requested to be tested in the aforementioned manners. There may be additional embodiments that are possible with variations in the exact order that various steps are performed in.

In some embodiments the flow may continue to step460where the testing will be exhaustive. When a set of tests that are defined as necessary for the qualification of a processing tool are successfully performed then the tool may be considered qualified for various operations that may occur in the cleanspace fabricators that have been described or in variations thereof.

An entity that sells toolPods may offer the newly developed tools for sale. There may be various entities that would or could offer such a product. In a non-limiting exemplary sense the toolPod may be offered for sale by a firm that manufactures Cleanspace fabricators. Or, it may be offered by a firm that offers toolPods. Or, alternatively it may be offered by a firm that specializes in processing tool sales. Another example from other possibilities may include the firm that designed the tool offering the qualified toolPod for sale. In each of these descriptions, examples have been described where qualification has been performed; however there may exist embodiments where the qualification is not performed or some equivalent is performed and each of the previous examples may also have embodiments that derive thereby.

Process of Crowd Sourcing Using Cleanspace Fabricators which are Networked Together in Some Means that Allows Communication of a Need.

The various types of cleanspace fabricators that have been described or are possible may create collections of fabricators of various scales of manufacturing. In an exemplary sense, small tool fabricators with a focus on small volume manufacturing may define a collection of fabricators which can rapidly and easily create prototype samples of electronic devices. InFIG. 5, item500a process where these collections of fabs may be networked together with communication means may be observed. In an example if a large network of small tool small volume fabricators is connected together as is schematically represented as item540, then a process related to “crowd sourcing” may occur.

At item510, an entity may express a need for a particular solution to be made. The example entity making this expression may be related to the network in various internal manners including an operator of the network, an owner of the network, an operator of various supply aspects of the network and the like. In alternative embodiments the entity making the expression of a need may be external to the network but have a means of communicating its needs to the network.

At item520, in some embodiments the expressing entity may formalize their requirements into a set of specification requirements. These specification requirements may be initially included in the expression of the need or follow on in a next step. In some cases these needs may then be communicated by various means, some of which may be described in further detail in following sections, to the network of cleanspace fabricators at step530.

The network at step540, thus aware of the need and in some cases the associated specified requirements may assess their capabilities to provide the need. Since there are some embodiments of the inventive art where the sourcing of prototype samples may occur at significantly reduced cost structures it may be a straightforward method for companies, individuals or other entities to create samples in prototype form of material designed to address the communicated need. At steps550,551and552a number of entities may have designed solutions and fabricated them in a cleanspace fabricator network. In some of the exemplary cleanspace fabricator networks, large wafer dimensions may occur in others small sized wafers may occur and in still others mixtures may be prevalent. A fabricated prototype may therefore be provided at various terms including at a cost or at no cost from the designer entity through the fabricator or fabricators to the entity expressing a need.

InFIG. 6, item600, a flow chart of a process that may be considered related to crowd sourcing when using the various types of fabricator networks that may be possible utilizing the inventive art surrounding cleanspace fabricators is depicted. At step610an entity expresses a need for a product to be built. This product may be built, assembled or combined in cleanspace type fabricators and some of the cleanspace type fabricators may have elements that have the characteristics of toolPods within them. At step620, the need may be passed on by various means of communication to fabricators, a network of fabricators or networks of fabricators. At step,630, in some embodiments an optional step of including specifications and parameters related to the need may be included in the communication. At step640, in some embodiments there may be a reply communicated from entities interested in designing and building a solution to the need. It may also be possible in some embodiments for this step to be removed from the flow.

Continuing withFIG. 6, item600at step650an entity may have built prototypes in a cleanspace fabricator of the various networks and have provided a sample prototype to the requesting entity. In step660, the requesting entity may test a sample provided in one of these method embodiments to the desired performance needs of a device that includes the produced prototype. In a next indicated optional step, item670, the entity may purchase additional samples or purchase volume quantities from one or more of the suppliers that provided prototype samples. It may be clear that, it is possible that some of the networks include combinations of small volume fabricators that may provide the prototype samples and large volume fabricators that scale up the production after small volume quantities are surpassed.

Process of Intellectual Property Licensing Using Cleanspace Fabricators.

Cleanspace fabricators, especially for the smaller tool nodes, allow for unique models of licensing of intellectual property. Small volumes of material may be economically manufactured and therefore, use of different predesigned circuit elements may be experimented with. In additional manners, process flows may also be treated as intellectual property that may be licensed through the infrastructure of cleanspace fabricators. There may be also other aspects of forming electronic components that may be able to be licensed as intellectual property including for example methods of packaging and methods of combining different integrated circuits and other components into assembled components to mention a few.

Proceeding toFIG. 7, item700, an exemplary embodiment for a cleanspace fabricator licensing model may be found. At item710, a designer or business contact may want to produce a certain amount of production in a novel fashion. In an exemplary sense, the customer may want to build this product using his own design and other intellectual property as well as some standard licensable aspects. In the example at710, the exemplary use may include using a standard process flow developed by an fictitious firm provided for example, of ACME incorporated, the use of which may be represented as item720. Another fictitious firm, LEG inc., may be an example of a licensable circuit block design in this case for a licensable processor block, the use of which may be represented as item725.

Continuing with item740, the product in example may next be produced in a cleanspace fabricator. The production may include processing wafers to the circuit design using the mentioned wafer processing flow. In addition, the same or similar facilities,740, may be used to further process, test, assemble and package the product into a finished chip form of the product as shown as item750. When such a process is followed there may be a flow of royalties and fees that derive from the production of the product,750. These may be represented as a royalty payment to the exemplary ACME firm for the use of their process modules at760, and also as a royalty payment to the exemplary LEG firm for the use of their processor design at765, and also as a payment to the clean space fabricator at item770.

InFIG. 8, item800, a flow chart of a process that may be considered related to the licensing model when using the various types of fabricator networks that may be possible utilizing the inventive art surrounding cleanspace fabricators is depicted. In step810the process of selecting prior art or others to be incorporated into a product may occur as a first step. It may be apparent that in other embodiments the process may be iterative and occur in loops of various kinds. Nevertheless, there may be associated with each cleanspace fabricator or each network of cleanspace fabricators a construct which may be called a library or a combination or network of libraries that relate to the aspects of the product which may be licensed. Some of the types of elements that may exist in the library might be the design layout and “mask making” information associated with certain circuit blocks. Additional types of elements in the library may include process flows that call out the ordering of process tools and associated process specifications that may occur on the tools related to the product. Additionally, test related elements may be found as well as process flows and design aspects for types of packaging. From the flow of making substrates themselves to the output of a packaged product perhaps including attached die on substrates with attached peripheral components a great many aspects of the product design may be included in a library that links capabilities at a fab to user accessible blocks to call out such capabilities, in some cases even including the combination of processing at multiple fabricator locations with their individual networked libraries.

After an initial selection of blocks to be licensed in the production flow of the product, a design step may occur at item820. In this design step various licensed items may be incorporate as well as the addition of new proprietary design aspects which may be in circuit design, layout, process step details, assembly and packaging. There may be numerous other types of design aspects like the incorporation of MEMS devices and power device fabrication into the flow as a few non limiting examples.

At step830, the cleanspace fabricator or fabricators are used to process a substrate into one or more of the integrated circuit elements. Continuing with the process flow into step840, this fabricated circuit element or these fabricated circuit elements may be tested and then assembled into integrated components of various kinds. Next in step850, the integrated components may be assembled into a packaged product which may be performed either at a wafer level of assembly/packaging or at the component level itself. In this exemplary process flow, the finishing of the production, at860, may trigger an even where the royalties for the various elements be they design blocks, process flows, assembly flows and packaging aspects are calculated by either a person or an automated system and then a payment scheme may occur. In addition, a payment or billing process may occur for the billing of the processing steps which occur within or in combination of steps within a cleanspace fabricator.

Methods of Communication Between Cleanspace Fabricators and Other Entities.

Proceeding toFIG. 9, item900, a depiction of the methods of communication between a cleanspace fab and other entities is portrayed. In the example, a cleanspace fab may be represented by item920. The arrows into and out of the920may represent communication events into and out of the fabricator entity. In970some exemplary communication modes may be observed. In a non-limiting sense amongst the potential modes of communication are included forms of mail both electronic and hardcopy. Also information may be exchanged by telephone based protocols including for example facsimile transmissions. In addition, Ethernet and internet forms of communications may be useful for the exchange of data files using various types of file transfer protocols and other means of electronic data storage exchange which may include both physical transfer of devices and wired/wireless electronic forms of communication.

These various forms of communications as shown in970may be useful for communications between the various demonstrated cleanspace fabricators as shown in items920,930,940and950. As well, any of these cleanspace fabricators may receive communications from external entities. Some examples of such external entities may include for example item960which represents other Fab (which is meant to include both semiconductor fabs and assembly and test fabs.) External entities may also include entities which are non-fab entities. For example, a fabless customer/designer may be a type of entity represented in item910. Certain aspects of the communication paths have been shown inFIG. 9include a number of cleanspace fabricators, a few example means of communication and data storage and types of external fabs. The diversity of communication means and parties to the communication is provided for example and should not limit the generality of the concepts herein.

Processes for the Production of Large Volumes of Production Using Smaller Wafer Sized Tools.

In much of the discussion in this and previous disclosure by this inventor there has been description of the innovations related to cleanspace fabricators directly and also to the innovations that come from this novel environment which tend to open up economic models for the production of small levels of product. However, referring toFIG. 10, item1000, there may be innovative models that utilize the cleanspace and cleanspace derived innovations in novel manners to address large scale production volumes.

At step1010, a fabricator with a large footprint is deployed. In some embodiments this may entail building a new facility in others it may entail retrofitting portions of an existing fabricator or an entire existing fabricator. The resulting fabricator will have cleanspace regions that support the movement of large amounts of small substrate pieces from process tool to process tool. Furthermore, the numbers of locations for processing tools will be very large in these resulting fabricators.

Proceeding to step1020, the small tools that will populate the large volume fabricator will be produced. In some embodiments, these tools will use the infrastructure of the toolPod and chassis that is important to small volume fabricator models. An additional diversity may come from some additional changes that may be made to these tool designs because of the fact that they may be used in large collections. In smaller collections of processing tools either related to large (greater than 8 inch) wafer size plants with produce large volumes of products or for small wafer sizes where smaller number of tools allow for an infrastructure that economically supports small volumes of production, the processing tools in these models need to be able to be flexible to perform a variety of processing conditions. For example, gas flows may need to be flexible to different flow rates. And, there may be a need to have multiple different gasses connected to the tool where only a subset are used for any particular process. This type of flexibility can be found in most tool types where plasma conditions and gasses are programmable and flexible, implant conditions are programmable and flexible; and in a more general perspective most tools have degrees of flexibility which increase the cost per tool. In a large volume model, a particular process tool can be simplified to support a single processing condition in the process flow. This may improve economics of the processing tool and in some embodiments allow for a simplified process tool that may in some cases be used and then not repaired, but merely replaced. Not all embodiments require the tool model to be this novel compared to current state of the art, however, the combination of large numbers may create novel fabricator entities.

Continuing to item1030, the large volume fabricators will be fitted so that the cleanspace regions have automation to move small substrates around within them. In some embodiments, a collection of very fast robotic elements will define the type of fab-wide automation. In other embodiments, there may be an infrastructure that combines large numbers of automatic robots which move through the cleanspace in concerted fashion. There may be numerous manners of automating the large volume fabricators that are processing small substrates.

Next continuing to item1040, another optional aspect of the fabricator design that may be more economically justified for large volume fabricators using small tools than for other fab models is the configuring the fabricator for automation of tool change events. A cleanspace fabricator can in some embodiments have the nature where its tools are peripherally located. In small volume fabricators this allows for technicians to easily perform functions to change the tools out of the factory one at a time without interrupting the function of the rest of the factory. However, it is also possible to equip the factory with automation that performs the tool change out in an automatic fashion as well. In this model the space on the other side of the processing tools from the cleanspace would also have robots of various kinds that swap out tools. There may be numerous types of cleanspace fabricator design types that enable this type of automation.

Proceeding to item1050, the assembled tools and automation in a type of cleanspace fabricators are used to produce product. As mentioned factories configured for large volumes of production may have very large numbers of tools deployed in manners consistent with the cleanspace fabricator type. In some cases these processing tools may be simplified to perform a single type of processing step within a limited processing window. This may allow for a number of different models of the production flow. It may be possible for example to divide the processing fab into regions, that are either physically defined or through the use of computers, electronically defined from combinations of select tools regardless of where they physical residing. In embodiments where the tools are segregated into regions of one type or another a particular process flow may be performed that only flows through the region itself. In an alternative scheme the processing of wafers may, under computer control, allow for wafers to progress in processing through the fabricator where any step may be processed with any tool capable of performing the processing step. There may be a very large diversity of manners of producing product in such an environment.

Processes for Qualifying a Design in Multiple Process Flows in a Cleanspace Fabricator Network.

In a state of the art fabricator, it may be typical that a number of process flows may be operant at a certain time. However, due to the nature and economics of fabricators it may be common that each of those flows represent a one of a kind processing selection for a particular generation of technology and its offspring. Thus, for example a factory may have a 45 nm generation with some different modifications in certain areas like for example, the type of substrate or the type and number of gate oxide features, or the type and number of metal levels to mention a few examples. It is however rare to have multiple process flows for the same technology generation. The infrastructure of a small tool, small volume focused fabricator actually enables the utilization of multiple process flows of the same technology generation. In a non-limiting example, there could be for example three different 45 nm process flows that closely resemble process flows in different Foundry companies. In such a case, the presence of these different flows allows the user to process his designs in a parallel fashion through the different flows. In some embodiments such processing may search for the best performance of the design amongst the choices. In other embodiments the flexibility may allow for multiple paths in sourcing the product when the customer demand of the product exceeds a small volume level and the product is sourced from foundries.

At step1110, the general process may start with having a design that has been successfully produced by various means in a first process flow type. The designers of the product in the process shown in item1100ofFIG. 11may decide to produce prototypes of the product in the different flow options that exist. InFIG. 11, three exemplary flows are shown in a parallel fashion for three different results. In steps1120,1130and1140respectively the same type of process step occurs in different manners for three other flows indicated as flow 1, flow 2 and flow 3 respectively. In these steps the design parameters both from a design aspect and a layout perspective are adjusted in manners appropriate for the different flows 1, 2 and 3. In a next series of parallel steps,1121,1131and1141, the substrates are then processed through the cleanspace fabricator to the different flow conditions relating to flows 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Finally in steps1122,1132and1142in a parallel perspective each of the substrates that has been produced may be tested both for process controls relating to the individual process flows 1,2 and 3 and/or to product related test that are defined for the product mentioned in step1110.

Operating Maintenance Facilities at an External Location

State of the art processing fabricators have by their very nature a single mode type for maintenance of processing tools. In the perspective being addressed at this point, these tools are maintained in the cleanroom at a location where they have been placed and installed for the duration of their useful lives. The cleanspace fabricator with toolPods and chassis type implementations creates a different type of model where tools are removed and replaced routinely. This novel ability creates different models relating to tool maintenance. Proceeding toFIG. 12, item1200a model for maintaining tools in a system of cleanspace fabricators is shown. Items1210,1220and1230depict exemplary embodiments of cleanspace fabricators that contain processing tools that may be removed from the factory and replaced. In the model a tool from each of the fabricators may be removed from Fab1 in step1215or in Fab 2 in step1225or alternatively in step1235from Fab 3. These tools may in these steps be shipped to a Maintenance facility shown as item1240. In some embodiments, the fabricators of items1210,1220and1230may be located at or near a common central location and the location of the Maintenance facility1240may be also located on the same central location. In an alternative extreme, the three exemplary fabs may be located at different locations over the world, including for example on three different continents. In this case the transportation involved in steps1215,1225and1235from the fabs to the maintenance facility may include truck, rail, plane, and boat modes and may include combinations of these modes to get the tools to and from the maintenance facility. Step1245, depicts the process of moving or transporting repaired tools which have been repaired in the maintenance facility1240and moving them back to the fabs1210,1220and1230. In some embodiments a process tool in this flow may be “owned” or associated with a particular fab and therefore the same tool that moves out of fab 1, item1210in a step1215for example may move back to item1210fab 1 after repair in facility1240. In other embodiments, the repaired tools may be generically available to fab networks and after repair at facility1240may be sent, for example to whichever of item1210,1220and1230is needed.

In a related sense, proceeding toFIG. 13, item1300a method for repairing tools in a fabricator using the approach fromFIG. 12may be found. In a step1310within one of the fabricators a step may be performed to determine that a processing tool needs maintenance. Such a step may involve system counters that monitor the number of processing steps that are performed on the tool and this counter thus triggering a maintenance event. Alternatively there may be quality checks that are performed on test or monitor wafers that demonstrate that a tool needs replacement. In some embodiments there may be feedback from tests performed on substrates that have been processed through the process tool that warrant the tool being maintained. There may be numerous reasons for at tool to be identified as needing maintenance.

Proceeding to step1320, the tool that has been determined to need maintenance may be deactivated from its processing role and placed in some kind of maintenance mode. In some embodiments a fab-wide computer based automation system may communicate in a variety of manners including wired and wireless communication protocols to instruct the process tool to assume a maintenance mode. In alternative embodiments a person may receive information that the processing tool needs to be replaced and they may direct the tool to enter a new state, perhaps called a maintenance state, which allows for the removal of the toolPod from its chassis.

Proceeding to step1330, the tool that has been placed into its maintenance mode by some means may next be removed from the fabricator. As mentioned in previous sections this removal may be effected by people or in some embodiments there may be automation that performs the removal. In either event, after the tool is removed there may be an optional step where a replacement tool is immediately replaced upon the tool chassis and with other processing steps made to be an active tool choice in the fabricator.

Next in step1340, actions are next performed on the toolPods removed from the factory. The toolPod in need of maintenance will next be transported by some means from the fab to the repair facility.

Proceeding toFIG. 14, item1400an exemplary method may be associated with the steps that may occur within the repair facility identified as item1240inFIG. 12. At step1410, the tool in need of repair may have maintenance tasks performed upon it at the maintenance facility. In some embodiments the maintenance facility may include a large cleanroom in which the staff function to perform the maintenance.

After performing the appropriate maintenance task or tasks on the tool in the toolPod a next step may now follow in step1420. At this step, the repaired tool may next be placed upon a test stand. In some embodiments, the test stand may exactly replicate the connections that occur on the chassis that would be located in the fabricator to attach to the toolPod in question. In other embodiments a different perhaps more generic connection to the toolPod may be made with a test stand. The test stand may include functions like providing vacuum to the toolPod, providing electrical power, providing signal communication, providing gas flows, liquid flows, chemical exhaustion of various kinds and many of the functions that are commonly used by processing tools.

Proceeding to step1430, in some embodiments the toolPod upon the test stand may have an ability to conduct a self-testing protocol. There may be many algorithms that are consistent with testing the function of a particular tool in manners that may be performed in an automated function. For example, one of many such possible functions may be the testing of the toolPod for its vacuum integrity. Through various sensors and automation steps the tool may have a vacuum formed within itself and then that portion of the tooling may be isolated from the evacuation portions of the test stand. Thereafter, the pressure in the tool may be monitored with sensors that exist either in the toolPod itself or on the test stand. Any of a number of standard type tests that particular tools may be receive may be algorithmically programmed into the toolPod and/or the test stand.

In step1440, a general test protocol may be performed on the toolPod that has been repaired. In some cases, the types of tests mentioned in the step1430may be manually performed for example. However other tests may also be performed that relate to handling of substrates, processing of example substrates and production of substrates which may be evaluated for controls on the quality of the tool in question. A non-limiting example of such a test may include receiving a monitor wafer into the toolPod through a standard toolport of the tool and then cycling the monitor wafer through various portions of the toolPod under various process conditions which may simulate actual processing. Thereafter the monitor wafer may be cycled out of the toolPod and a measurement of the levels of particulate matter that has been deposited upon the monitor wafer may be made.

There may be more sophisticated testing which is performed on the tool to test and assure its capability to actually perform one or more actual processes within it. In step1450an optional step is depicted that represents testing the tool under actual performance conditions. In some embodiments, the tool may be transported to a cleanspace fabricator, installed in the fabricator and then used to process substrates in a manner that allows for the process results to be assured and verified for the tool before it is shipped back to a production related cleanspace fabricator.

Processes for operations of New Research and Development in Multiple Locations.

The novel aspects of the cleanspace fabricator with toolPod/Chassis innovations allows for new methods of performing high technology production functions that are particularly useful for activities of small volume. One family of processes that by its very nature is of small volume is those processes relating to research and development. There can be very many different types of research and development processes that can occur. For example, the process of generating and evaluating new types of semiconductor processing may be considered where different materials are used or different manners of processing the materials may be involved to mention a first example.

Proceeding toFIG. 15, item1500a depiction of a variety of different research and development type processing is made. An additional aspect may or may not be involved in the processing described inFIG. 15. In some embodiments, a research and development aspect may be performed in a particular cleanspace fabricator and then additional processing may occur in an alternative such processor. In other embodiments, it may be possible that research and development activities may be performed merely in one of the facilities depicted as a box inFIG. 15. Alternatively, some or all of the boxes inFIG. 15may represent activities within a single cleanspace fabricator which is configured to allow all the activities to occur.

For illustration purposes however, we may describe a case where each of the boxes inFIG. 15may represent a separate cleanspace fabricator which performs some novel function related to research and development. In a starting fabricator shown as item1510, a cleanspace fabricator may be formed to include standard types of processing tools, processing flows and other standard aspects. At this first facility may be located a particular set of product engineers who are performing research and development activities for a particular product type where they have developed their own test equipment that correctly match the new products that are experimenting with. In some embodiments of the type now being described such a fabricator may be considered a main location of the research and development activity for this novel product. Substrates may be processed in this facility represented by item1510. In some cases, however, there may be a need to perform experimental processing steps either with new materials or new methods of processing materials. Another cleanspace fabricator, depicted as item1520, may have developed capabilities to perform these processes or utilize these new materials. Thus substrates may be routed from facility1510to1520and back to produce experimental versions of product with these new processing characteristics.

In an alternative or perhaps supplementary aspect, there may be a need of performing experimental processing with the substrates of location1510in another facility where there is different experimental tooling. As shown by item1530, a different facility may exist where found amongst the tooling within the facility is novel tooling. Either for the purposes of the research and development of fabricator1510or the purposes of fabricator1530or both substrates may be processed in both1510and1530using the experimental tooling as another example of research and development models potentially operant with the cleanspace and toolPod models of fabricators.

Continuing with alternative or supplementary examples, a different type of research and development may involve either processes, materials, or components relating to the packaging of products. In an example the fabricator of item1540may have developed and/or have experience performing a particular assembly step upon substrates. In some other embodiments they may also have the ability of using particular materials or package designs in relationship to the substrates being processed in fabricator1510. Again, substrates may be moved from1510to1540and back in an example of the types of processes that are possible with the cleanspace and toolPod fabricator models herein.

Yet another type of research and development activity that may be considered in this framework relates to the development of experimental designs. In item1550an exemplary fabricator may have developed particular design elements that they are expert in. In some models these new designs may become intellectual products that are licensed as mentioned earlier. In some embodiments, however, it may be that the design elements are not yet released in such a manner for general use, or that the owners prefer for small volumes to produce the new designs themselves. Referring toFIG. 15, again substrates may flow from fabricator1510to and back from the fabricator indicated by item1550.

From a matter of generality, examples have been made with reference toFIG. 15that relate to each of the numbered boxes representing a different fabricator. It is reminded that such an example was just one of a number of possibilities. For example, all of the boxes may represent functions which reside in a single fabricator entity or any combination of the boxes may reside in multiple fabricators and still represent art within the scope of the inventions herein.

Operating Collections of Cleanspace Fabricator Based Innovations for Configurations that are Less than Full Factory Scale for Research and Development Processes

A number of discussions have been made relating to the operations of fabricators of the cleanspace fabricator type when the additional innovation of the toolPod and tool chassis concept may also be involved. The elements of these innovations provide a number of novel methods relating to fabrication. In general, a number of these discussions related to full processing entities; that is entities that can fully process a substrate to a desired end product need. It may be apparent, but is important to note that in some embodiments consistent with the inventive art herein, entities may actually be defined by subsets of the processing tools that would be required to fully process substrates into a product. The various models may be interpreted to relate both to full processing fabricators and partial processing entities as well.

In some examples, processing entities utilizing the inventive art while not defining fabricators per se are shown inFIG. 16, item1600. There may be various methods related to combinations of the type inFIG. 16. In an extreme example a combination of a tool pod and a test stand may be found as item1610. This type of combination was referred to in the discussion relating toFIG. 14, item1420as an example. A test stand, item1645, may have the ability of correctly mating with a toolPod,1640at the point identified as item1620. When the toolPod is connected to the test stand in this manner, there may be means for the toolPod control systems to interface with those of the test stand, which may be identified as item1630. There may be numerous purposes for such an entity as item1610. As previously mentioned the combination may provide a means of testing a toolpod that has been subjected to a maintenance activity. In addition, however, the combination may provide an ideal configuration to support tool developers to develop and test new tooling concepts. Although an isolated toolPod and test stand of this kind may not be able to produce substrates as a full factory would, it could nevertheless be very useful for developing toolPod entities that after their development could be tested in actual fabricator environments. Another type of use for the toolPod and test stand concept of item1610may be in laboratory type settings where the research and development into new materials or the fundamental scientific aspects of a processing step may only require a single processing environment for the process need.

As shown in item1611, combinations of toolPods and test stands are also consistent with the inventive art herein. In some embodiments, combinations of similar test stand and toolPods may be formed. Alternatively, the combination may involve different types of either toolPods and/or test stands.

Another type of configuration may be envisioned by the item depicted as1650. In this exemplary configuration of a subset of tools that would typically be found in an entire fabricator a construct that might be called a lab configuration may be formed. In some embodiments a cleanspace may be formed in similar manners that have been defined and may be represented as item1660. Processing tools may have toolports, item1670, as typically would occur in cleanspace fabricators. And, there may be a number of processing tools an example of which may be item1680. The total number of tools may be less than that to form a product, but more than isolated toolPod/tool stand type configurations. In some embodiments there may only be one level of tooling in such an entity as depicted inFIG. 1650. Alternatively, there may be multiple levels in configurations that will still not reflect a full processing fabricator that are consistent with such an entity. The various aspects of processes for research and development that have been discussed may alternatively relate to these types of entities as well.

As describe onFIG. 16, item1650may represent an exemplary laboratory configuration that uses the concepts of a cleanspace fabricator and the concept of toolPods to form a smaller entity for performing research and development type activities. In the lab configuration of item1650, there may be another region labeled as1690where substrates of various kinds are stored and also placed and removed into the environment. In some embodiments an operator such as one shown as item1691may place or remove the substrates. And additionally in item1695there may be a location within the lab configuration where various utility aspects and various chemicals, materials and gasses may be stored and handled for the operation of the entity1650.

Glossary of Selected Terms

Reference may have been made to different aspects of some preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. A Glossary of Selected Terms is included now at the end of this Detailed Description.Air receiving wall: a boundary wall of a cleanspace that receives air flow from the cleanspace.Air source wall: a boundary wall of a cleanspace that is a source of clean airflow into the cleanspace.Annular: The space defined by the bounding of an area between two closed shapes one of which is internal to the other.Automation: The techniques and equipment used to achieve automatic operation, control or transportation.Ballroom: A large open cleanroom space devoid in large part of support beams and walls wherein tools, equipment, operators and production materials reside.Batches: A collection of multiple substrates to be handled or processed together as an entityBoundaries: A border or limit between two distinct spaces—in most cases herein as between two regions with different air particulate cleanliness levels.Circular: A shape that is or nearly approximates a circle.Clean: A state of being free from dirt, stain, or impurities—in most cases herein referring to the state of low airborne levels of particulate matter and gaseous forms of contamination.Cleanspace (or equivalently Clean Space): A volume of air, separated by boundaries from ambient air spaces, that is clean.Cleanspace, Primary: A cleanspace whose function, perhaps among other functions, is the transport of jobs between tools.Cleanspace, Secondary: A cleanspace in which jobs are not transported but which exists for other functions, for example as where tool bodies may be located.Cleanroom: A cleanspace where the boundaries are formed into the typical aspects of a room, with walls, a ceiling and a floor.Conductive Connection: a joining of two entities which are capable of conducting electrical current with the resulting characteristics of metallic or semiconductive or relatively low resistivity materials.Conductive Contact: a location on an electrical device or package having the function of providing a Conductive Surface to which a Conductive Connection may be made with another device, wire or electrically conductive entity.Conductive Surface: a surface region capable of forming a conductive connection through which electrical current flow may occur consistent with the nature of a conductive connection.Core: A segmented region of a standard cleanroom that is maintained at a different clean level. A typical use of a core is for locating the processing tools.Ducting: Enclosed passages or channels for conveying a substance, especially a liquid or gas—typically herein for the conveyance of air.

Envelope: An enclosing structure typically forming an outer boundary of a cleanspace.Fab (or fabricator): An entity made up of tools, facilities and a cleanspace that is used to process substrates.Fit up: The process of installing into a new clean room the processing tools and automation it is designed to contain.Flange: A protruding rim, edge, rib, or collar, used to strengthen an object, hold it in place, or attach it to another object. Typically herein, also to seal the region around the attachment.Folding: A process of adding or changing curvature.HEPA: An acronym standing for high-efficiency particulate air. Used to define the type of filtration systems used to clean air.Horizontal: A direction that is, or is close to being, perpendicular to the direction of gravitational force.Job: A collection of substrates or a single substrate that is identified as a processing unit in a fab. This unit being relevant to transportation from one processing tool to another.Logistics: A name for the general steps involved in transporting a job from one processing step to the next. Logistics can also encompass defining the correct tooling to perform a processing step and the scheduling of a processing step.Maintenance Process: A series of steps that constitute the repair or retrofit of a tool or a toolPod. The steps may include aspects of disassembly, assembly, calibration, component replacement or repair, component inter-alignment, or other such actions which restore, improve or insure the continued operation of a tool or a toolPodMultifaced: A shape having multiple faces or edges.Nonsegmented Space: A space enclosed within a continuous external boundary, where any point on the external boundary can be connected by a straight line to any other point on the external boundary and such connecting line would not need to cross the external boundary defining the space.Perforated: Having holes or penetrations through a surface region. Herein, said penetrations allowing air to flow through the surface.Peripheral: Of, or relating to, a periphery.Periphery: With respect to a cleanspace, refers to a location that is on or near a boundary wall of such cleanspace. A tool located at the periphery of a primary cleanspace can have its body at any one of the following three positions relative to a boundary wall of the primary cleanspace: (i) all of the body can be located on the side of the boundary wall that is outside the primary cleanspace, (ii) the tool body can intersect the boundary wall or (iii) all of the tool body can be located on the side of the boundary wall that is inside the primary cleanspace. For all three of these positions, the tool's port is inside the primary cleanspace. For positions (i) or (iii), the tool body is adjacent to, or near, the boundary wall, with nearness being a term relative to the overall dimensions of the primary cleanspace.Planar: Having a shape approximating the characteristics of a plane.Plane: A surface containing all the straight lines that connect any two points on it.Polygonal: Having the shape of a closed figure bounded by three or more line segmentsProcess: A series of operations performed in the making or treatment of a product—herein primarily on the performing of said operations on substrates.Processing Chamber (or Chamber or Process Chamber): a region of a tool where a substrate resides or is contained within when it is receiving a process step or a portion of a process step that acts upon the substrate. Other parts of a tool may perform support, logistic or control functions to or on a processing chamber.Process Flow: The order and nature of combination of multiple process steps that occur from one tool to at least a second tool. There may be consolidations that occur in the definition of the process steps that still constitute a process flow as for example in a single tool performing its operation on a substrate there may be numerous steps that occur on the substrate. In some cases these numerous steps may be called process steps in other cases the combination of all the steps in a single tool that occur in one single ordered flow may be considered a single process. In the second case, a flow that moves from a process in a first tool to a process in a second tool may be a two step process flow.Production unit: An element of a process that is acted on by processing tools to produce products. In some cleanspace fabricators this may include carriers and/or substrates.Robot: A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control, whose function is typically to perform the operations that move a job between tools, or that handle substrates within a tool.Round: Any closed shape of continuous curvature.Substrates: A body or base layer, forming a product, that supports itself and the result of processes performed on it.Tool: A manufacturing entity designed to perform a processing step or multiple different processing steps. A tool can have the capability of interfacing with automation for handling jobs of substrates. A tool can also have single or multiple integrated chambers or processing regions. A tool can interface to facilities support as necessary and can incorporate the necessary systems for controlling its processes.Tool Body: That portion of a tool other than the portion forming its port.Tool Chassis (or Chassis): A entity of equipment whose prime function is to mate, connect and/or interact with a toolPod. The interaction may include the supply of various utilities to the toolPod, the communication of various types of signals, the provision of power sources. In some embodiments a Tool Chassis may support, mate or interact with an intermediate piece of equipment such as a pumping system which may then mate, support, connect or interact with a toolPod. A prime function of a Tool Chassis may be to support easy removal and replacement of toolPods and/or intermediate equipment with toolPods.toolPod (or tool Pod or Tool Pod or similar variants): A form of a tool wherein the tool exists within a container that may be easily handled. The toolPod may have both a Tool Body and also an attached Tool Port and the Tool Port may be attached outside the container or be contiguous to the tool container. The container may contain a small clean space region for the tool body and internal components of a tool Port. The toolPod may contain the necessary infrastructure to mate, connect and interact with a Tool Chassis. The toolPod may be easily transported for reversible removal from interaction with a primary clean space environment.Tool Port: That portion of a tool forming a point of exit or entry for jobs to be processed by the tool. Thus the port provides an interface to any job-handling automation of the tool.Tubular: Having a shape that can be described as any closed figure projected along its perpendicular and hollowed out to some extent.Unidirectional: Describing a flow which has a tendency to proceed generally along a particular direction albeit not exclusively in a straight path. In clean airflow, the unidirectional characteristic is important to ensuring particulate matter is moved out of the cleanspace.Unobstructed removability: refers to geometric properties, of fabs constructed in accordance with the present invention that provide for a relatively unobstructed path by which a tool can be removed or installed.Utilities: A broad term covering the entities created or used to support fabrication environments or their tooling, but not the processing tooling or processing space itself. This includes electricity, gasses, airflows, chemicals (and other bulk materials) and environmental controls (e.g., temperature).Vertical: A direction that is, or is close to being, parallel to the direction of gravitational force.Vertically Deployed Cleanspace: a cleanspace whose major dimensions of span may fit into a plane or a bended plane whose normal has a component in a horizontal direction. A Vertically Deployed Cleanspace may have a cleanspace airflow with a major component in a horizontal direction. A Ballroom Cleanroom would typically not have the characteristics of a vertically deployed cleanspace.

While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. Accordingly, this description is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations as fall within its spirit and scope.