Executing Sorter Scenarios#

General Process#

When material reaches a sorter action trigger step, or when a Split/Merge is performed manually in the MES, a Resource Job will be created automatically and the Material will need to be executed in a Sorter step to proceed. If the Material is not currently in a Sorter step, it can be temporarily moved to a Sorter-specific flow via the Sorter Off-Flow button.

Once the Material is at a Sorter Step, if the machine is automated via IoT, placing the Container physically on a Sorter Load Port should automatically Dispatch any associated Materials in the MES.

The Resource's Sorter View can then be used to review the job details, and select the Target Container and positions. The Job is started by Tracking In the Material, which will trigger Equipment Integration to send the Job and the required wafer movements to the Sorter equipment. For more details on how to use the user interface, see Sorter View.

The following sections describe more specific actions required for each Sorter Resource Job Type.

Scan#

In Scan operations where the Container is not associated to the MES Materials yet, the Lot Material would needs to be Dispatched manually - this would be the normal situation on Scan Expand on when Synchronizing a lot to a new Container, as the MES doesn't know which Materials are in the Container yet.
After the Material has been dispatched and the Container is docked in the Load Port, if the Container is not associated yet, it needs to be done manually in the Sorter View, by selecting the lot Material in the corresponding Container/Load Port section and Saving.

The Track In operation can then be used to trigger Equipment Integration to send the Job to the Sorter equipment and start reading the Sub-Material physical IDs.

As the Equipment reads each Sub-Material ID, the MES will trigger different actions depending on the Scan Sub-Type:

• Expand - Expands the top-most Material quantity into individual sub-materials. Depending on the system configuration, the physical Id read can be set as the new Sub-Material Name, or as a separate material attribute or property.
• Expand Add - Similar with Expand, but it will create the scanned sub-materials' quantity, instead of transferring the quantity from the parent to child materials. e.g. Adding sub-materials quantity to a zero-quantity Lot.
• Validate - Verifies if the wafers' MES Container position matches the real container slot positions. Any mismatches will be presenting with warnings in the Sorter View, and the lot Material will be aborted once all container slots are scanned.
• Synchronize - Updates the MES Sub-Material Container positions with the real slots + read by the equipment. Sub-Materials in the wrong position will be corrected in the MES; if a sub-material ID is not detected in any Container position, or if another ID is reported in the slot, it will be disassociated with the container. Note: Synchronize will not change any Material-SubMaterial relations, only the container associations.

Once the Equipment finishes the Scan job, the Main Material should be Tracked Out automatically, except if there were validation errors or an incomplete/partial execution, whereas the Material would be aborted automatically.

Split/Merge#

Split and Merge operations and be pre-defined in the Process and triggered automatically via Future Actions or Experiments; or they can be done in a more ad-hoc way during execution by pressing the standard Split or Merge button.

Doing the Split/Merge via the standard MES user interface allows pre-defining the target Containers and positions, creating a Sorter Resource Job with Sub-Type Predefined. A Job will only be created if there are any changes on the Material-Position assignments - if there are no slot changes, it is assumed the Split/Merge is only logical and it will be executed immediately, without the need of a Sorter.

When the required Containers are docked and the Materials are dispatched (should be automatic with Equipment Integration), the target Containers and Slot assignments can be selected or adjusted in the Sorter View.

Future Actions and Experiments Splits/Merges do not allow container and positions to be pre-assigned, and will always require the user to select the desired Container and Position assignment on the Sorter View. The Resource Jobs for there operations will have the sub-types Future Action and Experiment respectively.

Once the source-target position assignments are done, the Material can be Tracked In to send the Job to the Sorter equipment. Submaterial-Container positions are updated in real-time as the equipment reports the wafer transfers, but the actual Material Split/Merge transaction will only be triggered at Track Out.

Multi-Run Partial Executions#

For cases where there aren't enough load ports available for all the required Containers in a Sorter Job, the job can be executed partially for only a subset of the Materials/Containers. Once that part of the job is completed, new containers can be docked, and the lot Material Tracked In again, to execute the remaining portion.

Before starting each run, the system validates that the following conditions are satisfied:

• Split operations
  • At least one target material and the source material are defined.
• Merge operations
  • At least one source material and the target material are defined.
• Split/Merge operations
  • All required Material movements were defined for the Materials involved in the partial run.
  • The containers involved in the current run are physically docked at the equipment.
  • Container positions are valid and available for execution.
• Scan operations
  • At least one container linked with the resource job is physically docked at the equipment.

If any of these conditions are not met, the run can not be started.

After each run, the system evaluates whether all planned movements for the resource job have been completed (split and merge) or all wafers were read by the equipment (scan).

• Process Still Pending - if one or more movements are still pending/ one or more wafers were not read by the equipment:

  • The resource job is not completed and returns to the Created state.
  • A Lot Abort of the Main Material is performed for the MES transaction:
  • Despite the abort, any Split or Merge operations related to movements already executed on the tool will still be applied in the MES, since the physical changes have already occurred.
  • Target Lots completed on the partial Split run are tracked out accordingly.

• Process Completed - if all planned movements have been completed / all wafers were read by the equipment:

  • The MES proceeds with the standard Track‑Out behavior.
  • Any remaining Split or Merge operations required to reflect the final physical state are applied.

Once movements are marked as completed, they cannot be modified or reprocessed.

Assumptions and Restrictions#

• Scan operations and Multi-run Partial execution require the resource to be automated and in Online automation mode.
• Currently only one container can be sent to the equipment on Scan scenarios. When multiple containers are docked, only the first container associated with the resource job will be scanned. To scan another container, the operator must first undock the previously scanned container or remove its lot in the sorter view.
• Standard Move Next is currently not prevented if a Material has a Pending Split/Merge Future Action on Processed waiting for Sorter execution.