Litho, etch, deposition, CMP
Tools shipped Waferira-ready, with the recipe windows, parameters and SECS/GEM interfaces declared at the factory. The agent runs on the OEM tool; the OEM keeps the equipment relationship.
Partners
The channel is the equipment.
Waferira's distribution plan runs through the companies already in the fab: process-tool OEMs for litho, etch, deposition and CMP, inspection and metrology equipment vendors, MES and AMHS vendors and the integrators who connect them over SECS/GEM. The programme opens with the design-partner cohort; nothing here is a signed partnership.
Illustrative scenario: Module M2 · 300 mm · metal-1 · lot L-48213, one lot through metal-1, one approval gate
Partner types
Who fits, and how
How each kind of partner fits the plan.
Optical, e-beam, SEM, overlay, CD, film
Imagery and measurements fused into Scanira and Vmetra. The vendor keeps the measurement; Waferira adds the classification, the prediction and the closed loop.
Lots, recipes, yield
Wafer and lot genealogy written back into the system of record. Evidence packets for excursion and customer review.
Stockers, vehicles, fab networks
Carrier moves, connection, interface inventory and the shadow-mode phase of a pilot, delivered by people the fab already trusts.
Design partners
The first two to four fabs shape the roadmap and get written data-rights terms. See the customers page.
SEMI standards, process research
Keeping the reasoning layer's citations current as standards and procedures change.
How it works
What a partner does and gets
The outline of the programme as planned.
A partner does
- Declares the recipe windows, parameters and interfaces on the tools or systems they ship or support
- Co-delivers the shadow-mode and assist-mode phases of a pilot
- Brings a fab with a metric and a signed baseline
A partner gets
- A Waferira-ready designation for the tool, inspection system or MES, once the connector is proven
- A share of the Module and Fab subscription on fabs they bring
- Early access to the SDK and the twin for their own engineering
Integrations
It speaks SECS/GEM, not cloud
Waferira reads and writes through the systems already in the fab. No rip and replace, no parallel historian, no new HMI to learn. Vendor names are examples of systems found in front-end fabs; connector availability is confirmed per site.
SECS/GEM on scanners, etchers, deposition, CMP, implanters, furnaces and wet benches
Recipe reads and bounded recipe writes
Advanced and run-to-run process control systems (Applied Materials APF and APC, PDF Solutions, in-house IDM APC)
Model state, correctables, control limits
Inline optical, e-beam and SEM inspection and review tools (KLA, Applied Materials, Hitachi High-Tech, Onto Innovation class systems)
Images, defect maps, ADC classes
Overlay, CD, film and OCD metrology (KLA, Onto Innovation, Nova class systems)
Sampled measurements that ground virtual metrology
Fault-detection and tool-sensor streams per chamber
Per-wafer signatures for virtual metrology and prognostics
Yield and defect analytics (PDF Solutions Exensio, Synopsys, Siemens Camline, INFICON class systems)
Yield, bin and genealogy context
Fab MES and schedulers (Applied SmartFactory, Siemens Camstar, Critical Manufacturing, INFICON FPS class systems)
Lots, routes, WIP, dispatch lists
Stockers, vehicles and FOUP handling (Daifuku class AMHS)
Carrier moves and handling exceptions
Run timeline · scenario
One scenario run, step by step
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.
run_7b2e9c
Module M2 · 300 mm · metal-1 · lot L-48213
illustrative scenario
SUCCEEDED
-
01
ingest.lot
SUCCEEDED
0.7 s
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.
-
02
twin.simulate
SUCCEEDED
38 s
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.
-
03
litho.correctables
SUCCEEDED
1 m 20 s
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.
-
04
etch.uniformity
SUCCEEDED
58 s
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.
-
05
cmp.removal
SUCCEEDED
46 s
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.
-
06
inspect.classify
SUCCEEDED
continuous
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.
-
07
vm.score
SUCCEEDED
2.1 s
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.
-
08
approve.human
APPROVAL
1 m 04 s
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.
-
09
dispatch.route
SUCCEEDED
4.3 s
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.
-
10
lot.release
SUCCEEDED
1 m 05 s
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.
Accelerated computing
Physical AI, at the tool
Computational lithography, defect classification on e-beam and SEM imagery, per-wafer virtual metrology and a full-fab twin are among the most compute-intensive workloads in manufacturing. Waferira keeps IP-sensitive inference and feature storage at the fab edge and runs training, simulation and optimisation on GPUs the fab controls.
Inspection vision
Inline optical, e-beam and SEM imagery and sensor fusion on fab-edge GPUs. 10 to 50 inspection streams per pilot module and sub-200 ms priority defect triage are the design targets.
Virtual metrology and FDC
High-volume multivariate tool-sensor and FDC time-series scoring on every wafer, 1 to 5 seconds per lot-step in the design, with nightly retraining as recipes and chambers drift.
Training
Defect, virtual-metrology and process-response models retrained per process family; 500 to 2,000 GPU-hours per family per quarter is the design target. Dedicated capacity is planned.
Fab twin
As-run process and flow simulation, 1,000 to 10,000 candidate recipe, metrology and dispatch scenarios per fab per day in the design. OVX access is planned.
Synthetic rare events
Rare defect, particle, overlay-drift, CMP-dishing and film-uniformity variants generated and validated against real distributions before promotion. Planned.
Dispatch optimisation
Constrained WIP dispatch re-optimised every 1 to 5 minutes across reticle, chamber, route, tool-state and cycle-time constraints.
AMHS and handling
Local FOUP and robot perception and exception detection at the fab edge. Jetson Thor is planned for higher sensor density.
Process reasoning
Tenant-isolated process Q&A and OCAP reasoning over recipes, SEMI procedures and audit logs, with citations enforced on every answer.
FAQ
Straight answers
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.
Get started
Talk about partnering
Tell us what you ship or support and which fabs run it.