Semiconductor manufacturing equipment
Source: CAN Newsletter March 2002
Mattson Wet Products is a worldwide supplier using CANopen with VMEbus systems in selected lines. The company decided to introduce PC-based controls as their next generation control architecture. And CANopen was chosen to be the communication system. The company launched a full-scale evaluation project and finally chose Beckhoff as main supplier for both hardware (Industrial PCs and field-bus I/O) and software (TwinCAT control system). Mattson Wet Products is specialized in the wet process of semiconductor manufacturing. After each lithographic production step, the wafers have to be etched, flushed and cleaned. Reliability of controls and communication is crucial in this application: if a system breakdown may cause the tray of wafers to be left in the acid for too long, this obviously would destroy the entire tray load.
Mattson first introduced the CANopen technology in the products AWP300 and the Kronos 300, which are processing 300-mm wafers. All machines are fully modular designed. According to the customers requirements the number of process units and tanks varies, and so does the software. The CANopen network connects the PC controller with several servo axis, fast I/O modules and a control panel. Less time critical I/Os, valve manifolds, control panels and special function devices like megasonic and ultrasonic systems use a second CANopen network with 125k bit/s. In total, there are more than 500 discrete and 50 analog I/O channels.
