RFID Shelving Final Project: 19 Mar 2007 Guy Shtub Idit Gershoni

RFID Shelving Final Project: 19 Mar 2007 Guy Shtub Idit Gershoni Radio Frequency Identification Technology that uses devices attached to objects that transmit data to a (RFID) receiver. Alternative to bar coding. Advantages:  read/write capability.  data capacity.  no line-of-sight needed. = Shelves Storage solution in the clean room

Introduction  A Fab is a factory where integrated circuits devices are manufactured.  Fab18 - Intel’s 200mm Fab located in Kiryat Gat, Israel.  The project deals with building a system for reliable handling of reticles in the clean room of Fab18.

Intro (cont) & basic terms Reticle - An optical template inserted into the manufacturing machines in the Lithography area. Reticl e Lithography = The process of imprinting patterns The production process for a single silicon wafer can take as much as a few months. Wafer Wafer = silicon slice (raw material)

Current Situation “Railway” Tracks in the clean room’s ceiling A single lot Being transported Lot = pack of 25 silicon wafers

The Problem Recently Intel’s Fab18 started using a new manufacturing technology. For this technology new reticles are used. The new reticles are larger and don’t fit in the old reticle storing and transportation system. The technicians manually bring the reticles from the storage room to the work stations. Human errors can occur. Reticles may get lost (reticle cost can reach to 150K $). No control. The project aims at providing the ability to control the movement of the reticles.

The Solution Construct an integrative system which includes hardware and software using RFID technology. The project's hardware includes shelves with RFID readers, placement sensors and led indicators. Additionally it includes a gate with an RFID reader. The employees have RFID chip on their tags, and so do the reticles. Our system allows the technician to place an order for a specific reticle, identify the technician as he passes through the gate, and indicate the location of the desired reticle. When a technician returns a reticle the system identifies it and updates the data accordingly. Our system includes new Databases, Graphic User Interface, and a controller component for the entire system.

The solution – The Shelves Shelves example

System Architecture The MTUI system is an interface for the technician in the clean room. The technicians use it to create orders for Reticles The orders from the MTUI are transferred to the RTS and its WART Database (Oracle). The Control System is responsible for the communication between the different components and for the logic. The Control System interacts with the CDIS (Intel’s employee DB) Reticle shelves & Gate (Hardware provided by the 3 rd party vendor)

Use Cases

User Interface (1) Administrator Page: Used to create and update associations between RFID tags and Reticles. When a RFID tag is placed in the RFID reader, the reader reads its data and the tag ID is displayed to the user 2 options for the user

User Interface (2) MTUI Simulator – Making an order:

User Interface (3) Gate Simulator : Employee’s WWID “Enter the gate” event

User Interface (4) Shelves Simulator: Insertion Removal

Data Bases: Oracle Microsoft SQL Server Code & Environments: Visual Studio 2003.NET Technology – C# Technologies Our team at work

The End Questions?

Thank You