Sandglass-type product specification management method for supporting modular design of semiconductor manufacturing equipment

The product life cycle for semiconductor manufacturing facilities has been significantly reduced as a result of the technological advancement of the semiconductor manufacturing process and the expansion of its demand. To ensure long-term market competitiveness under this environment, many companies attempt to convert their systems into mass customization production systems. In general, the specification management for semiconductor manufacturing equipment has adopted the method of making the bill of materials structure of the existing equipment into a new one based on the same physical structure and then customizing it according to a customer's demands in the detail design phase. However, this method results in longer lead times and difficulties maintaining data consistency due to frequent design changes in connection with various derived products. We suggest a sandglass-type product specification management method to efficiently reflect varying and versatile requirements in product development and shorten the design lead time. In addition, we propose a method to support the modular design of semiconductor manufacturing equipment by classifying the standard specifications for a final product into product component and part component specifications. Finally, we develop a closed-loop product specification management system called NEXUS using our method, and apply this system to semiconductor manufacturing processes.