IMPORTANT: Read This First
This is a description and marketing brochure for a 3-D wafer fab tracking system written by Dr. Rocky Nevin c. 1994-1997. This system was the primary control system for the wafer fab for two years. MicroUnity dramatically changed directions afterward due to events unrelated to this system.
As a Senior Technical Staff member, Rocky worked under the Director of Technology Al Mathews, and later Roger Caldwell. He also managed the team of Gil Elbaz and Professor Roger Glassey who designed and implemented most of the underlying database.

This brochure documents the work that was done.


3D-Ops

3D Visual Operations Control

3D-Ops

Now this proprietary 3D visualization software, 3D-Ops, is available for licensing to apply to your business.



Key Features

Just as a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) ties together disparate data elements into a cohesive whole, 3D-Ops ties together disparate objects and related data and applications: 3D models, real-time operational data, on-line notebooks, spread-sheets, web tools and graphs.

The Computer Communicates Visually with Us

Why 3D Visualization? What's Wrong with Menus and Command Lines?

3D-Ops leverages the power of human visual processing to present a rich tapestry to the user. The state of the facility can be grasped in a single glance, since the images combine their static appearance with features that the computer generates in real-time. Visualizable databases are a big advance over command lines and pull-down menus which communicate with machines via single threads of thought.

Conceptual Space

3D visualization gives the computer the task of adapting to the user, rather than forcing the user to adapt to the computer. The use of visualization taps into our natural system of feature recognition and 3D spatial awareness. It leverages that awareness to convey information and navigate among sources of information. The computer translates its information into something that our visual system and 3D awareness can absorb at higher speeds. In the same way that a common language, or a lingua franca, is understood by all people, the 3D model is a common language understood by us and the computer. The visual simulation approach merges "conceptual space" with objects in 3D space. First, objects related to each other are nearby, and a number of different objects with their relatives are visible at a glance. For instance, the simulation shows a product lot sitting on the machine that is physically processing it. Information about that lot is accessed via "conceptual objects," such as histories and pass-down logs, attached to the lot or the machine. Second, the appearance of the objects, size, color, shape, relative position etc., informs the viewer at a glance. For example, you can see the lot's status, priority and type, the number of wafers inside and their status, and how recently the lot and machine were touched. By merging conceptual space with visual space, the database comes alive

BELOW: The picture below shows the state in one of MicroUnity's photolithography manufacturing aisles. With this single screen, the user can see that one machine is currently in process (indicated by yellow color), one machine is ready for processing (indicated by grey color), one machine is down (indicated by red color), there is high priority material present and it is in-process (indicated by red star above the lot) and several standard lots are waiting to be processed.

Your factory floor workers will be able to assess the condition of your factory in less time than it took you to read this sentence. That is the power of 3D-Ops. The human mind is capable of much higher bandwidth communication than can possibly be provided by pull-down text mennfus, and 3D-Ops releases that potential.

3D-Ops Components

3D Visual User Interface: The user interface shows what is going on in the plant. All of the objects on the screen come from the database; for instance equipment, terminals, lots, aisles, etc. Objects can be added, deleted, moved and resized from the user interface or directly in SQL. Information objects can be attached to any physical object. For example, objects can be attached to a process flow, a maintenance schedule, an image, a specification or a logbook, etc. so that all items of information that are related to a physical object in your factory can be accessed by clicking on the object in the user interface. Even multi-media utilities can be launched from the user interface: live video feeds from CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) stations can be launched by clicking on that object. Similarly, audio clips, bound to any object, can be recorded by anyone and played at will.

Open SQL Database: A Sybase SQL Server provides the underpinnings for the operational state and business rules. A small number of function calls between the 3D-Ops user interface and the database keeps them separable, and allows changes to be made to one without complications with the other. This also allows easy substitution of another database.

Support for Open Applications: The open architecture connects to existing business solutions such as inter/intra-net browsers and office application suites. 3D-Ops' user interface takes previously stand-alone applications under its wing, integrating them with the database in one location. Keep all your existing software and simply use 3D-Ops as a front-end for your information technology.

Currently these applications are integrated into 3D-Ops:

- Web browser: an alternative text-based interface to the database. All today's and tomorrow's web browser tools can be applied to the open SQL database and accessed from any web-enabled computer. Inventory, Engineering data, Machine-Down, current Work In Process and other reports can be accessed real-time in a web browser from the database.

- Office applications: Applix notebooks are text files, tables and spreadsheets which are launched from any of the objects in the 3D space using the full power of this application suite.



Activities Supported by 3D-Ops