300 mm Fab Readiness Addressed by GW Associates' FIT300 Factory Integration Tester.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 1999--

New Tester Shows That Production Equipment Conforming to New Standard

For Handshaking With Automated Material Handling Systems is Less

Costly

GW Associates Inc. (GWA), the leading provider of wafer fab communications software and related products for automated semiconductor manufacturing, announced today the FIT300(TM) Factory Integration Tester, an automated script-driven test tool meeting the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) Carrier Hand-off Enhanced Parallel Link Standard (E84) required for all 300 mm factories. The new test tool assures industry readiness as 300 mm wafer fabs start ramping up.

The FIT300 offers valuable time savings by first verifying that production equipment performs proper E84 handshaking to automated material handling systems (AMHS) before the equipment is shipped or installed and can test AMHS systems for proper hand-off without requiring the presence of the expensive production equipment. Reducing the need for production equipment to be dedicated to testing is a significant driver when capital-intensive 300 mm factories start gearing up to production levels.

I300I/J300 Global Joint Guidelines require all 300 mm semiconductor equipment to provide an E84 Parallel Interface used for handshaking with AMHS and a Semiconductor Equipment Communications Standard (SECS) and SEMI Generic Equipment Model Standard (GEM) interface for SECS communications. The FIT300 is designed to test these related interfaces.

"SEMI standards require the testing of these interfaces, and the FIT300 is the solution. FIT300 has the ability to simulate various E84 errors, letting the user verify complex error recovery problems that may occur only rarely on the factory floor," said Jack Ghiselli, GW Associates president. "With 300 mm factories, you can't afford to make any mistakes. Error conditions that happen rarely in 200 mm fabs will be a much bigger issue for fully automated 300 mm fabs."

The FIT300 combines E84 capabilities, E23 protocol for legacy systems and SECSIM Pro(R) functionality. It can be used to test, independently or together, the parallel interface and the SECS interface. The FIT300 also can perform safety tests, making sure there are no AMHS transfers when equipment is switched into manual mode. For all tests, both a real-time cathode ray tube (CRT) display and a disk log are provided.

Automated scripts run parallel interface protocol sequences quickly and correctly with minimum operator interaction and automated error checking. Pre-written E84 test scripts are provided; customized scripts using GW's SSL(TM) script language are also available. FIT300 includes a hardware component that provides standard E84 signals and attaches to the parallel printer port of any PC running Microsoft Windows(R) and GW's SECSIM Pro software.

GW Associates Inc., founded in 1975 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., is the semiconductor industry's market leader in the application of the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) Semiconductor Equipment Communications Standards (SECS) and the SEMI Generic Equipment Model Standard (GEM). The company provides computer software and services for factory automation in the semiconductor industry as well as for the surface mount, circuit board, hybrid substrate and rigid disk manufacturing industries. In addition, GW Associates markets diagnostic test tools such as the SECSIM Pro(R) SECS Simulator, the leading active tool for testing SECS interfaces, and the SECSMON(TM) SECS Monitor, the leading passive test tool that monitors the host/equipment SECS link without interfering with normal operation. GW Associates is located at 1183 Bordeaux Drive, Suite 27, Sunnyvale, CA, 94089. Visit GW Associates on the world wide web at http//www.gwainc.com.