An equipment element repair management method for managing a repair operation of an equipment element that is attached to manufacturing equipment for manufacturing a product includes: performing a maintenance operation for the equipment element; determining whether or not a state of the equipment element after the maintenance operation is more improved than a predetermined state; transporting the equipment element of which the state is not more improved than the predetermined state to a repairer for performing the repair operation for the equipment element in a case where the state of the equipment element is not more improved than the predetermined state; and performing the repair operation of the transported equipment element in the repairer.

In an embodiment a system includes: a wafer store comprising a wafer configured for processing by a semiconductor processing tool; a cart configured to transport the wafer from the wafer store along a predetermined path; a robotic arm, the robotic arm configured to: read wafer data from the wafer store, transport the wafer from the wafer store to the cart, send the wafer data to the cart, wherein the cart is configured to transport the wafer to a location in response to the wafer data.

Disclosed systems and methods may support fabric-independent multi-patterning. A system may include a coloring constraint access engine and a fabric-independent multi-patterning engine. The coloring constraint access engine may be configured to access a set of coloring constraints to apply to geometric elements of a circuit design without accessing a fabric layer that defines a layout of the geometric elements of the circuit design, the set of coloring constraints applicable to multi-patterning the geometric elements of the circuit design to support manufacture of circuit layers using multiple manufacturing steps (e.g., via complementary lithographic masks). The fabric-independent multi-patterning engine may be configured to perform, independent of the fabric layer, a pattern coloring process according to the set of coloring constraints to determine a color assignment for the geometric elements, respectively.

A mounting board manufacturing system includes: a component placer including a placing head and a placing head mover that moves the placing head to a target position for placing the component on the board; an inspector that inspects a placement position of the component by imaging the board; a correction value calculator that calculates a correction value for correcting the target position; a target position calculator that calculates the target position using the correction value; and a correction value changer that changes a latest correction value used immediately before stopping an operation of the component placer to a correction value different from the latest correction value when the operation is resumed.

An information processing device includes: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: acquire information on production of substrates and equipment information on a mounting line in which a component is mounted on the substrates; and optimize, based on the information on the production of the substrates and the equipment information on the mounting line, a plurality of factors that affect a time to complete the production of the substrates.

A production management device, such as a production management computer, determines a production sequence of plural types of substrates in order to produce the substrates consecutively on a product type-by-type basis by using a component mounter including component supply devices. The production management device includes a main control unit for determining a production sequence of substrates such that, where a time from start to completion of off-line setup of all the component supply devices to be used for a single product type of substrate is defined as an off-line setup time, a sum of the off-line setup times for two product types of substrates to be consecutively produced is balanced over an entire period of consecutive production.

Methods and apparatus for the positioning of a feature of a tray such that a robot may place a component in the feature are disclosed.

A tape feeder management device includes a feeder classifying unit and a feeder arrangement setting unit. The feeder classifying unit classifies a plurality of tape feeders into a plurality of types of tape feeders. The feeder arrangement setting unit sets arrangement of the plurality of tape feeders in a component feeding unit, according to classification of the tape feeders made by the feeder classifying unit. The feeder arrangement setting unit includes a first setting unit. The first setting unit extracts a special type feeder classified as a tape feeder of a special type by the feeder classifying unit, and sets arrangement of the plurality of tape feeders such that a given reference number or more of the special type feeders are arranged consecutively in a row in an area of the component feeding unit, the area being defined by at least excluding both ends of the component feeding unit.

Apparatuses and methods are provided for mitigating radio frequency interference and electromagnetic compatibility issues caused by the resonance of metal planes of a circuit board. A method for controlling impedance at an edge of a circuit board includes creating a cut at an edge of a plane of the circuit board. The cut extends from the edge of the plane to a point at a depth into the plane. The method can further include creating a cut pattern in the edge of the plane by repeating the cut along the edge of the plane such that an impedance of the plane at the depth is different, or lower, than an impedance of the plane at the edge of the plane. Other aspects are described.

A method for initializing individual exposure field parameters of an overlay controller is disclosed including initializing a first control thread having a first context associated with a first product type, wherein a first layout of first exposure fields is defined for the first product type for processing in a stepper. The method further includes remapping a set of previous control state data for a set of control threads associated with other product types different than the first product type into the first layout. The other product types have layouts of second exposure fields different than the first layout. An initial set of control state data for the first control thread associated with the first product type is generated using the remapped previous control state data. The stepper is configured for processing a first substrate of the first product type using the initial set of control state data.