Every Waferira agent owns a module or a function of the fab, a declared tool set, the signals it watches and the recipes it is allowed to move. Five of them ship as named products. The orchestrator plans, arbitrates and routes approvals; none of them acts outside the policy engine or the qualified recipe window.
Illustrative scenario: Module M2 · 300 mm · metal-1 · lot L-48213, one lot through metal-1, one approval gate
Each agent owns a module or a function of the fab, a bounded tool set and a metric the fab already measures. They negotiate for shared tools and recipes through the orchestrator, never directly. Five of them ship as named products.
Photolithography, overlay, focus and dose, CD
Predicts overlay, CD and focus-dose response per scanner, reticle and layer from metrology and inline defect signals, and closes run-to-run control by writing corrected correctables and focus-dose recipes over SECS/GEM, with computational-lithography context for mask-aware moves.
Etch and deposition uniformity, rate, film properties
Controls etch and deposition uniformity, rate and film thickness, stress and composition across the wafer from tool-sensor and FDC signatures, with Vmetra's virtual metrology grounding every move and the fab twin validating it before the lot runs.
CMP planarisation, implant dose and uniformity
Holds CMP removal rate, dishing and erosion and implant dose and uniformity within window, scoring excursion risk in real time from FDC signatures and virtual metrology and trimming recipes inside the qualified bounds.
Cleans, diffusion and thermal budget
Controls cleans, diffusion and thermal budget against the process window, tracking particle and chemistry signals and the energy, gas and chemical use the fab pays for at every step.
Defect classification, particles, reticle excursions
Fuses inline optical, e-beam and SEM imagery at the tool edge to classify and predict defects, particles and yield-limiting excursions, auto-dispositions nuisance against killer defects, triages reticle and pattern excursions and raises inline holds.
Virtual metrology, run-to-run and advanced process control
Predicts metrology for etch, deposition, CMP, implant, clean and diffusion on every wafer from tool-sensor and FDC signatures, scores excursion risk, decides which wafers go to physical metrology, and closes run-to-run APC by handing corrected recipes to the process agents.
Yield, WIP, scheduling, dispatch, cycle time
Re-optimises WIP, scheduling and dispatch under reticle, chamber, qualification, route and hot-lot constraints, weighting every move by live yield and excursion risk from Scanira and Vmetra, with the fab twin validating the plan before it commits.
FOUP, AMHS and wafer handling
Drives FOUP and AMHS moves and wafer handling so lots arrive when the dispatch plan expects them, with motion perception and exception detection at the fab edge and handling validated in simulation before it touches a carrier.
Excursion response, non-conformance, wafer and lot genealogy
Runs excursion response and OCAP linkage, non-conformance and wafer and lot genealogy, gates lot release against the layer spec and assembles the traceability record every action on the lot has to leave behind.
Recipes, integration specs, SEMI standards, OCAPs, engineer Q&A
Answers process-integration and yield questions from recipes, integration specs, SEMI standards and excursion and OCAP procedures, with every answer cited to its source and retrieval scoped to the tenant.
As-run wafer and fab twin, process and flow
Fuses process (litho, etch, deposition, CMP, implant, thermal) and flow (WIP, tools, AMHS, routes) into an Omniverse-based twin that simulates candidate recipes, correctables, WIP and dispatch moves, as-run against as-designed, and returns the predicted yield, uniformity and cycle time before the lot runs.
Planning, arbitration, human approval
Plans the run, arbitrates between agents competing for the same tool or recipe, enforces the autonomy level, recipe bounds and tool-state checks, and routes anything outside the qualified window to a named approver.
No agent moves a recipe it has not declared. The metric column is what a pilot on that agent would measure against the fab's baseline.
Predicts overlay, CD and focus-dose response per scanner, reticle and layer from metrology and inline defect signals, and closes run-to-run control by writing corrected correctables and focus-dose recipes over SECS/GEM, with computational-lithography context for mask-aware moves.
Shipped as Lithera.
| Watches | Overlay residuals, CD, focus-exposure matrix, scanner and reticle state, Scanira defect signals |
|---|---|
| Moves | Per-field correctables and focus-dose recipes, inside the qualified window |
| Metric | First metric on a pilot cell: overlay and CD capability, lot scrap at litho |
Controls etch and deposition uniformity, rate and film thickness, stress and composition across the wafer from tool-sensor and FDC signatures, with Vmetra's virtual metrology grounding every move and the fab twin validating it before the lot runs.
Part of the platform, included in the Fab tier.
| Watches | Chamber FDC traces, virtual film thickness and uniformity, rate drift between physical measurements |
|---|---|
| Moves | Pressure, RF, gas and time trims within the qualified recipe window |
| Metric | Measured as uniformity excursions caught before physical metrology |
Holds CMP removal rate, dishing and erosion and implant dose and uniformity within window, scoring excursion risk in real time from FDC signatures and virtual metrology and trimming recipes inside the qualified bounds.
Part of the platform, included in the Fab tier.
| Watches | Removal rate, downforce and platen telemetry, implant dose and beam state, virtual thickness |
|---|---|
| Moves | Downforce, platen speed, slurry and polish-time trims; implant dose correction within window |
| Metric | Measured as post-CMP thickness variance and dishing against baseline |
Controls cleans, diffusion and thermal budget against the process window, tracking particle and chemistry signals and the energy, gas and chemical use the fab pays for at every step.
Part of the platform, included in the Fab tier.
| Watches | Furnace and bath telemetry, particle counts after clean, thermal budget per lot |
|---|---|
| Moves | Time, temperature and chemistry trims within the qualified window |
| Metric | Measured as thermal-budget and particle excursions and chemical use per wafer |
Fuses inline optical, e-beam and SEM imagery at the tool edge to classify and predict defects, particles and yield-limiting excursions, auto-dispositions nuisance against killer defects, triages reticle and pattern excursions and raises inline holds.
Shipped as Scanira.
| Watches | Inline optical, e-beam and SEM imagery, reticle repeater signatures, particle events |
|---|---|
| Moves | Nothing directly: it dispositions, raises holds and routes classified signals to the control and dispatch agents |
| Metric | First metric on a pilot cell: review load and scrap reduction, excursion catch rate |
Predicts metrology for etch, deposition, CMP, implant, clean and diffusion on every wafer from tool-sensor and FDC signatures, scores excursion risk, decides which wafers go to physical metrology, and closes run-to-run APC by handing corrected recipes to the process agents.
Shipped as Vmetra.
| Watches | Tool-sensor and FDC signatures on every wafer, physical metrology where sampled, model drift |
|---|---|
| Moves | APC model updates and corrected recipes handed to the process agents; metrology sampling plan |
| Metric | First metric on a pilot module: metrology-sampling reduction and excursion catch rate |
Re-optimises WIP, scheduling and dispatch under reticle, chamber, qualification, route and hot-lot constraints, weighting every move by live yield and excursion risk from Scanira and Vmetra, with the fab twin validating the plan before it commits.
Shipped as Dispira.
| Watches | WIP by step, tool and chamber state, reticle availability, queue and cycle-time targets, yield risk per lot |
|---|---|
| Moves | Dispatch lists and lot routing to qualified chambers, re-optimised every few minutes |
| Metric | First metric: cycle time and on-time delivery in one fab area |
Drives FOUP and AMHS moves and wafer handling so lots arrive when the dispatch plan expects them, with motion perception and exception detection at the fab edge and handling validated in simulation before it touches a carrier.
Shipped as Dispira.
| Watches | Stocker and vehicle state, carrier position, handling exceptions |
|---|---|
| Moves | FOUP moves, stocker retrieval, handling sequences |
| Metric | Measured as transport delay and handling exceptions per thousand moves |
Runs excursion response and OCAP linkage, non-conformance and wafer and lot genealogy, gates lot release against the layer spec and assembles the traceability record every action on the lot has to leave behind.
Part of the platform, included in the Fab tier.
| Watches | Every recipe move, correctable, VM score, defect disposition and approval on the lot |
|---|---|
| Moves | Hold, release and non-conformance decisions |
| Metric | Measured as genealogy completeness and excursion-response cycle time |
Answers process-integration and yield questions from recipes, integration specs, SEMI standards and excursion and OCAP procedures, with every answer cited to its source and retrieval scoped to the tenant.
Part of the platform, included in the Fab tier.
| Watches | Process recipes, integration specs, SEMI standards, OCAP procedures, excursion history |
|---|---|
| Moves | Nothing. It informs engineers and the other agents and cites what it used |
| Metric | Measured as citation coverage on every answer |
Fuses process (litho, etch, deposition, CMP, implant, thermal) and flow (WIP, tools, AMHS, routes) into an Omniverse-based twin that simulates candidate recipes, correctables, WIP and dispatch moves, as-run against as-designed, and returns the predicted yield, uniformity and cycle time before the lot runs.
Shipped as Fabtwin.
As-run wafer and fab twin, process and flow.
Plans the run, arbitrates between agents competing for the same tool or recipe, enforces the autonomy level, recipe bounds and tool-state checks, and routes anything outside the qualified window to a named approver.
Part of the platform, included in the Fab tier.
Planning, arbitration, human approval.
Every Waferira run is an ordered, inspectable sequence. This is run_7b2e9c on Module M2 · 300 mm · metal-1 · lot L-48213. Scenario completes in 10 steps with one approval gate. Overlay and CD predicted inside spec, one reticle-repeater signature caught and held for review, dispatch re-optimised, lot released with full genealogy.
Fab Orchestrator · Pulled lot L-48213 from fab MES: 25 wafers, 300 mm, metal-1 layer, route, reticle, overlay and CD spec and the standing cycle-time target. Locked the target envelope for the run.
Fab Twin · Simulated 64 candidate correctable, recipe and dispatch sets on the as-run fab twin and ranked them on predicted overlay residual, CD uniformity, excursion risk and cycle time.
Litho-and-Overlay · Per-field overlay correctables and a focus-dose trim written to scanner SCN-07 over SECS/GEM after the previous lot's residual trended toward the control limit. Predicted overlay residual back inside spec.
Etch-and-Depo · Chamber B on etcher ETCH-12 showed an edge-fast uniformity drift in FDC. Pressure and RF trims written within the qualified recipe window; predicted CD uniformity recovered.
CMP-and-Implant · Downforce and platen-speed trim on CMP-03 against the virtual removal-rate estimate to hold post-CMP thickness and dishing inside the window.
Defect-and-Inspect · Inline optical, e-beam review and SEM imagery fused at the tool edge. 1,412 events classified, most dispositioned nuisance; one reticle-repeater signature on three dies flagged for review.
Metrology-and-Virtual · Virtual metrology scored every wafer at post-etch and post-CMP from tool-sensor and FDC signatures. Two wafers routed to physical metrology on predicted variance; the rest sampled at plan.
Fab Orchestrator · The reticle-repeater signature called for a reticle inspection hold and a recipe move outside the qualified window. Held for the module process engineer and approved at 03:14:27.
Yield-and-Dispatch · Dispatch re-optimised across 1,840 lots in WIP under reticle, chamber and qualification constraints. The lot routed to the qualified chamber with the shortest predicted queue; AMHS move issued to the stocker.
Quality-and-Conformance · Lot L-48213 moved on: genealogy written (recipe moves, correctables, FDC signatures, VM scores, defect map, approvals) and checked against the layer spec.
Two agents will want the same chamber or the same lot. The orchestrator arbitrates on the run goal, not on who asked first, and the handoff is logged like any other step.
Yield-and-Dispatch wants chamber B for lot L-48213 because it has the shortest predicted queue and the lot is on cycle-time watch.
Etch-and-Depo wants chamber B held for one lot to write a pressure and RF trim after FDC showed an edge-fast uniformity drift.
A uniformity excursion on 25 wafers outranks minutes of queue time under the run goal "no excursion past metrology". Etch-and-Depo holds the chamber for one trim cycle.
Chamber returned with the trim written and predicted uniformity recovered. Dispatch routes the lot in; the twin confirms the cycle-time target still holds.
Illustrative scenario.
A fab does not go from manual APC to unattended control in one step. Waferira makes the level explicit, auditable and reversible at any time. The first release runs shadow mode, then assist mode, then graduated autonomy for low-risk APC, defect and metrology loops.
| Level | What the agent does | What the human does | Where it sits in a pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 · Advisory | Recommends recipe moves, dispositions and dispatch, with citations | Enters every change manually | Shadow mode, first on the design-partner cell |
| L2 · Supervised | Proposes a recipe write or hold; it executes on approval | Approves each move in the review console | Assist mode, where accuracy and ROI are proven |
| L3 · Bounded | Writes inside the qualified recipe window, tool-state checks and OCAP linkage | Approves holds, out-of-window moves and lot release | Graduated autonomy for low-risk APC, defect and metrology loops |
| L4 · Qualified loops | Runs a qualified loop without prompting, inside its envelope | Sets the envelope; reviews the shift record | Planned; reserved for loops the fab has qualified |
Waferira writes to production tools over SECS/GEM. Every capability is scoped to a qualified recipe window, every write is policy-checked against tool state, and every action is written to an append-only, IP-isolated audit log the fab owns.
| Item | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 Type I and fab-security review | Control plane | QUEUED Planned, first 6 months |
| SOC 2 Type II | Control plane | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months |
| SSO and RBAC | Console and approvals | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months |
| IP-isolation and security assurance package | Fab security and IT and OT review | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months |
| SEMI-standards-cited reasoning | Recipes, integration specs, OCAPs | RUNNING In the design, every answer cites its source |
| Per-tenant IP isolation | Data, models, memory | RUNNING In the design from day one |
| On-prem and fab-edge deployment | IP-sensitive fabs | RUNNING Design option |
The questions fab directors and process engineers ask in the first meeting.
Yes, over SECS/GEM, but only inside the qualified recipe window for that tool, with per-parameter limits and tool-state checks, and only at the autonomy level your fab has set. Level 1 is advisory: Waferira recommends and an engineer enters everything. Design partners start there, in shadow mode.
The tool stays on its own controller and its last qualified recipe. Waferira is a supervisory layer on top of the APC, inspection, metrology and MES systems you already run, never a replacement for them, so an outage leaves the module running the way it runs today.
No. Inference and feature storage stay at the fab edge, recipes, device designs, defect libraries and process memory are isolated per tenant, and an on-prem control plane is available for IP-sensitive fabs. Any cross-fab learning is planned, contract-gated and privacy-preserving, and none of it moves recipes or designs.
Advisory recommendations start from the existing APC, metrology and ADC data on the wedge module. Defect classification, virtual metrology and excursion prediction improve as labelled events and lot outcomes accumulate per process family. Rare excursions are augmented synthetically only after validation against real distributions.
You are, the same as with any APC strategy, which is why every write is policy-checked, bounded to the qualified window, logged and reversible, and why holds, out-of-window moves and lot release wait for a named approver with the OCAP linked.
A paid pilot on one process module or tool fleet, scoped to one wedge workflow with a baseline agreed in writing. Shadow mode first, observing and measuring the baseline. Then assist mode, where the agent recommends and your engineer approves and accuracy and ROI are measured. Then bounded autonomy for low-risk APC, defect or metrology loops if the fab is satisfied.
Start with one process module or tool fleet and one measurable baseline. A paid, IP-isolated pilot on defect classification, virtual-metrology-driven overlay and CD control or uniformity APC shows the number before you commit further.
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