A leading manufacturer of equipment used in the semiconductor and flat-panel
display industries approached ProtoLink about developing operational software
for a patented extrusion coating machine. This new technology applies
extremely thin chemical coatings to flat substrates or wafers with minimal
waste.
To meet system requirements, ProtoLink developed a set of applications which
cooperate to control machine functions and to provide an operator
interface. Our solution divides embedded processing tasks between a
control processor and a communications processor which communicate via shared
memory and backplane messages on a Ziatech STD 32 Star System. ProtoLink
developed a C++ class library to simplify interprocessor communications over
the Ziatech backplane.
The control processor software, which was developed in C++, coordinates the
behavior of sixteen axes of motion using Motion Engineering (MEI)
hardware. This application also performs I/O operations, alarm
monitoring, and sequencing of coating recipes. In certain environments,
this software may also perform routing of substrates between workcell stations.
The communications processor software, which was also developed in C++, exposes
the control interface to host software using the industry standard SECS II
protocol. In addition, this application also coordinates serial
communication with a number of system components, such as ovens, hot plates,
robots, fluid pumps, vacuum sensors, and PLCs.
Two Visual Basic applications provide the operator interface to the
system. One allows operators to construct complicated coating recipes in
a graphical, intuitive fashion. The resulting recipes are sent via SECS
II to the communications processor which makes them available to the control
processor. During recipe execution, the application presents status and
alarm information to the operator. The application also supports manual
operation of the coater, which is useful when constructing recipes and testing
machine functionality.
The second Visual Basic application allows operators to create and edit
workcell recipes that control the movement of substrates between various
processing stations. It also provides for manual control of individual
processing stations.
