Automated material management is crucial in a fully automated fab. This standard describes the communication between host and equipment about carrier transportation coordination, execution and completion to or from the production equipment or buffer stations (within the fab or integrated in the tool). This can be done automatically by an automated material handling system (AMHS), which is common in GEM300 fabs, or manually, e.g. in engineering mode. The standard includes detailed solutions for material handling and thinks through possible error scenarios.
Typically, the material in the arriving Carrier can only be processed if the following steps have been completed successfully at the load port:
- Carrier loaded
- CarrierID read and validated
- Slot map read and validated
After completion of the Carrier processing, the Carrier proceeds to the next production equipment or unloaded if they had undergone the final production step.