Sorter Integrated MES Scenarios#

Overview#

The goal of Sorter Integrated MES Scenarios is to provide the ability to trigger pre-defined or ad-hoc Sorter Operations, that will require the operator to move the Material to a Sorter Step/Resource to execute the operation. Only after the sorter action is completed, the material can continue the normal Flow. This ensures operational consistency, correct logistics behavior, and proper material flow control.

The current version:

It includes Sorter-integrated Split, Merge and Scan/Read (Validate, Synchronize and Expand) scenarios, including the main logic and IoT equipment integration for these scenarios.

Business Context#

In Semiconductor Front Ends, manually handling of wafers needs to be avoided, and a Sorter machine should be used instead.

This implies that for any change in wafer container (e.g. Split, Transfer, Change Position, etc) should not be triggered immediately in the MES, but instead it should require Sorter operation to be performed. The same logic applies also for predefined actions like Future Splits, Experiments, Compose Lot, etc.

Sorters are often also used for their wafer ID reading capabilities, where the machine scans the wafer ID in each container slot, in order to validate, synchronize or create the matching Materials on the MES side.

Concept#

This feature adds some Sorter-specific actions like Scan, Sort and Flip, that can be triggered via Future Actions (or Experiment Actions) into a particular Step or Material.

Some MES logistic actions like Split, Merge and Transfer can also be overridden, so that these actions are not executed immediately, but are instead set as pending a Sorter job. Only when the action is actually executed on a Sorter, will it be reflected in the MES.

Executing a Sorter action requires a Sorter Step and Resource modeled in the MES. For convenience, a dedicated Sorter Off-Flow button is available to temporarily change the MES Materials to a Sorter Step to execute the logistic operation, and then automatically return back to its original location in the main flow.

Operations#

Scan#

The Scan/Read operation takes advantage of the sorter's wafer scribe ID readers to perform a one of the following MES Resource Jobs: Expand; Validate; Synchronize.

The Scan/Read operation takes advantage of the sorter's wafer scribe ID readers to perform a one of the following MES Resource Jobs: expand; validate; synchronize.

Even though Sorters are often used for these purposes in Semiconductor Front Ends, this feature can be applied to any other Equipment capable of reading wafer scribe IDs, including dedicated wafer readers. Similarly, it can also be applied to non-wafer materials, like boards, strips or other substrates.

The Scan to expand functionality will create (via expand) in the MES the wafers read by the machine in a particular container. The wafers will be added as sub-materials by expanding the lot/batch material quantity into sub-materials and associating the respective container positions. The most common use-cases for this feature is when receiving wafers from the supplier, and when starting a new production lot.

There is an expand add variant, that will add the detected wafers into the lot material quantity instead of moving the quantity from parent into sub-materials.

The Scan to Validate option, verifies if the wafers' MES Container position matches the real container slot positions.

The Synchronize option, updates the MES wafers' Container position to match the real container slot positions.

Split/Merge#

Steps can now be configured to require a Sorter machine for logistic operations. In these cases Manual Split/Merge in MES is no longer immediate. Instead it creates a Resource Job to be executed in a Sorter.

The same applies to a Future Action for manual Split or Merge when it is triggered. The Future Action logic will not run and cannot be executed until the materials are in a sorter resource. Once they are, the Future Action will be performed automatically during trackout.

Off-flows#

In case a sorter action is triggered in a non-sorter step, either via Future Action Rule or direct Split/Merge UI actions, the material will be tagged with a Pending Resource Job. These Materials won't be allowed to be Dispatched or Tracked in to any step that doesn't include the Resource Job's Service. This means that the Material needs to be moved to a Sorter Step/Resource to perform the operation and only after resume its standard Flow.

To simplify this process a Sorter-specific Off-Flow mechanism is available, to temporarily move the Material to a Sorter Flow/Step, and then automatically return back to its original location in the main flow. The Off-Flows can be configured based on the Material context, allowing the Materials to be redirected to specific Sorters depending on the Area or required Sorter capabilities.

Multi-Run Partial Executions#

Multi‑Run Partial Execution scenarios apply when the number of containers involved in a sorter resource job exceeds the number of available load ports on the equipment. In such cases, the sorter job cannot be completed in a single run and must be executed across multiple consecutive runs. Each run processes a subset of the containers until all required material movements have been physically completed.

Before starting each run, the system must validate 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 movement information is present in the resource job.
  • 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 must not be started. One of the following errors will appear during material trackin:

• Container {ContainerName} is not docked.
• It is missing information regarding Material, Container or ResourceJobSubType to start a job.

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). Sub-materials with completed movements will be skipped when material tracking is enabled.

• 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 is performed for the MES transaction:

    - For Split operations: the source lot is aborted.
    
    - For Merge operations: the target lot is aborted (and can be aborted source lots not processed).
    
    - For Scan operations: the lot is aborted.
    

  • Despite the abort, any Split or Merge operations related to movements already executed on the tool must still be applied in the MES, since the physical changes have already occurred.

  • Lots affected by the executed split 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 must not be modified or reprocessed.

Configuration#

This section will be detailed better in future versions

The following table describes the most relevant configuration entries for integrated Sorter MES Scenarios.

Sorter Resources should have the SemiRequiresMaterialMovement attribute set to True.

Sorter Services need to have the SemiResourceJobType attribute set - Different Services will be required for each Sorter Job Type (e.g. Scan, Split, Merge, etc)

Steps that require a Sorter machine for logistics operations should have the SemiRequiresSorterForLogistics attribute set to true.

How to Use#

When material reaches a sorter 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 moved to a Sorter step to proceed (this can be done by a Sorter-specific Off-Flow).

When the Material is at a Sorter Step, placing the Container physically on a Sorter Load Port should automatically Dispatch the Material in the MES.

Use the Sorter View to review the job details, choose the Target Container and position and Start the Job by Tracking In the Material. Equipment Integration will then perform the Sorter Job. To see more details go to Sorter View.

For scan operations will need always equipment integration but for split/merge it can be done only in MES without IoT.

Scan#

To trigger scan operations is necessary to:

1. Create Future Action
2. Set Action: Execute Rule
3. Choose appropriate scan rule for your needs
4. Select trigger step where scan should occur

When material reaches trigger step, a Resource Job will be created automatically and the Material will need to be tracked in a Sorter to proceed.

Expand#

Create a Future Action using the rule SemiFutureActionScanExpand. When the Future Action is triggered, a resource job with the subtype ‘Expand’ is created. When the material reaches a sorter step, the operator must assign the lot to a container in the Sorter View. After tracking in the material, the equipment sends the physical ID of each sub-material, which is then created in the MES and associated with the corresponding container positions.

Expand Add#

Create Future Action with rule SemiFutureActionScanExpandAdd. When the Future Action is triggered, a resource job with the subtype ‘Expand Add’ is created. The subsequent logic is the same as the Expand operation described above.

Synchronize#

Create Future Action with rule SemiFutureActionScanSynchronize. When the Future Action is triggered, a resource job with the subtype ‘Synchronize Wafer-Slot Map from Equipment’ is created. When the material reaches a sorter step, the operator can assign the lot to another container in the Sorter View. By default, the container associated with the resource job is the one where the sub-materials are located in the MES. However, if the sub-materials are physically in a different container, the operator must assign the correct container for scanning. After the material is tracked in, the equipment sends the physical ID of each sub-material. If a sub-material is not in the correct container or position, the MES will relocate it to the appropriate location. If no sub-material exists with the received physical ID, the resource job is updated with that information but no sub-material is placed in that position. If another sub-material is already present in that location, it will be removed.

Validate#

Create Future Action with rule SemiFutureActionScanValidate. When the Future Action is triggered, a resource job with the subtype ‘Validate Wafer-Slot Map’ is created. The subsequent logic is similar to the Synchronize operation described above, but without modifying the containers or positions. This process is used to review the warnings in the Sorter View and verify whether the sub-materials are in the correct locations.

Split/Merge#

On Steps where a Sorter is required to perform a a Split/Merge operation, the Step attribute SemiRequiresSorterForLogistics should be set to true. This will cause the Split/Merge operation to be postponed in the MES until it is physically executed on a Sorter.

The Dispatch & Track-In is only available if the Service used has the attribute "Semi Resource Job Type" set as "Sorter Merge" or "Sorter Split". During Track-In, sub-materials that are not included in the resource job are skipped and excluded from the process (they will not be split or merged).

Predefined#

Split/Merge jobs can have a subtype called ‘Predefined.’ This occurs when Sorter Split/Merge operations are triggered using the Split and Merge buttons on the material page. The sorter logic is only triggered when the selected containers or positions differ from the source location.

Future Action#

This section describes how to trigger Sorter Split/Merge operations using Manual Future Actions. The following demonstration uses Split​ as an example; Merge​ behavior is logically identical.

1. Within the Material​ page, navigate to the Future Action​ section and configure an action with the execution type set to Manual:

   

   

2. Trigger Future Action.

3. The system creates both a Pending Future Action​ and a Resource Job.

   

   

   

4. The Manual Execution​ of the Future Action is blocked.

   

5. The Split/Merge operation can only be completed on the Sorter step. Once processed, both the Resource Job and the Future Action are marked as Complete.

Experiment#

This section describes how to configure Sorter Split/Merge functionality within a Experiment.

1. Define a Step​ containing an action of type Split, ensuring the Split Type​ is set to Physical.

   

2. Once the Experiment is created and triggered, the system behavior is consistent with the Manual Future Action flow described above (i.e., creation of Resource Jobs and blocking of direct execution).