By: Brian Rubow
SEMI North America
- Regional Standards Committee Co-Chair
- Information & Control Committee Co-Chair
- GEM 300 Task Force Leader
- DDA Task Force Leader
- Advanced Backend Factory Integration Task Force Leader
- Digital Twin for Manufacturing Task Force Leader
Background
The SEMI North America Information & Control Committee Fall meetings took place in conjunction with SEMICON West in San Francisco at the Moscone Center.
The first two days focused on task force meetings, including GEM 300, ABFI (Advanced Backend Factory Integration), GUI, CDS (Fab & Equipment Computer & Device Security), DDA (Diagnostics Data Acquisition), and the Digital Twin task force, all co-led by PDF Solutions. These task forces develop and maintain standards that enable semiconductor equipment, factory software, and cybersecurity systems to work together across suppliers and fabs.
The third day hosted the committee meeting, where members made final decisions based primarily on task force recommendations. This summary highlights key developments from selected task force sessions at the committee meeting.
All ballots approved by the committee remain subject to final review by the global SEMI Audit & Review Committee. While rare, ballots can still fail if they do not strictly follow SEMI procedures and regulations.
A SNARF (Standards New Activity Report Form) must receive technical committee approval before a task force can submit a ballot proposing a new standard or changes to an existing one. SEMI maintains a comprehensive website with detailed information on global committee activities:
Digital Twin Task Force
The task force submitted ballot 7465-1 defining digital twin terminology and establishing minimum requirements for digital twins in the semiconductor industry. While the ballot did not pass this cycle, the discussion showed broad alignment on the need for common terminology and baseline requirements for digital twins in semiconductor manufacturing. Once approved, this ballot will establish a new SEMI standard and provide a foundation for future work, including standardized interfaces between digital twins and factory systems.
GEM 300 Task Force
GEM 300 standards define many of the interfaces used for automated material movement and job management between semiconductor equipment and factory automation systems. During both the task force and committee meetings, members passed ballots 7491, 7492 and part of 7493.
- Ballot 7491: Adds standardized variable definitions to support recently added capabilities in the E40 Process Job standard.
- Ballot 7492: Adds standardized variable definitions to support recently added capabilities in the E94 Control Job standard.
- Ballot 7493, Line items 2, 3: Clarifies the definition of load ports for equipment with internal load ports. Also defines a new status variable to report the carrier ID for load ports—an advantage over the current standard where there are two carrier ID variables for each fixed buffer load port. The new variable allows for checking and reporting a single variable.
Ballot 7493 Line item 1 failed and will be reworked. This ballot proposes adding new well knowns for equipment constants that manage load port carrier behavior and well-knowns related to the carrier complete prediction state model.
Ballot 7345C (E90—Specification for Substrate Tracking) failed due to a defect in the ballot.
E90 defines how equipment tracks substrate locations and batches. Different equipment architectures have led to industry disagreement on when a batch should be created and deleted. This ballot attempts to eliminate ambiguity in the standard and provide more consistent behavior across equipment suppliers.
A batch represents a group of substrates processed simultaneously. Different substrate handling methods have led to disagreement on when to create and delete a batch. This ballot aimed to resolve a contradiction exists in the Batch Location state model between state definitions and the transition table. The standard defines the UNOCCUPIED state as containing no substrates, yet the transition table allows transitions to OCCUPIED only when all substrates have moved into the batch location. The task force aligned on a solution after previously evaluating three competing proposals.
The ballot failed due to minor technical errors and requests for additional clarifications. In this ballot iteration, there was no controversy over the proposed terms ‘form’ and ‘disband’ in reference to batches. Additionally, this version of the ballot requires substrate movement to form a batch. After some discussion, this requirement will be removed so batches can be formed from substrates already located at batch location. This change requires changes throughout the ballot. A new version of the ballot 7345D was created and posted for task force review.
Ballot 7428B, which proposes standardizing secure HSMS communication, remains one of the most significant efforts currently underway because it provides a standardized approach for encrypting communication between factory systems and equipment. It defines a three-stage communication model:
- TCP/IP
- TLS (Transport Layer Security)
- HSMS-SS
The ballot failed due to a pair of requirements that go beyond the intended scope, delving into certificate management that is owned by the factory and not intended in this standard. A new version of the ballot 7428C was created and posted for task force review.
DDA (Diagnostics Data Acquisition) Task Force
The DDA task force continues work on Freeze 3 of EDA, the next major generation of semiconductor equipment data collection interfaces. Freeze 3 is based on modern gRPC technology and is intended to improve interoperability and implementation consistency.
The DDA task force continues finalizing the Freeze 3 version of EDA/Interface standards based on gRPC technology. Two ballots were reviewed during the latest cycle:
- Ballot 7422B (E164) failed. Because Freeze 3 depends on E164, this standard must pass before Freeze 3 can be declared complete. The task force will revise and re-ballot it. Subordinate standards for E30, E40 and E87 were included with the primary E164 ballot and had several errors. These errors caused the entire ballot to fail. We expect that we can fix these issues in ballot 7422C and pass these together.
- Ballot 7488 advanced to a ratification ballot for final technical updates. This ballot, while technically including E120, E125, E132, E134, E179, in reality only included changes to E125 related to the modeling of parameters.
A task force member requested a few more changes to the core EDA standards based on implementation feedback. These changes will be balloted at the same time as 7422C, hopefully completing EDA freeze 3.
CDS (Fab & Equipment Computer & Device Security) Task Force
The task force submitted Ballot 7426, which proposes major enhancements to SEMI E191 (computing device cybersecurity status reporting). Current reporting requirements include:
- E191-1024 (current version): ComputingDeviceIdentifier, OSManufacturer, OSName, OSVersion, OSBuild
- Ballot 7311A additions: OSInstalledUpdates, OSInstalledComponents
- GEM (SEMI E30): MDLN (model number), SOFTREV (software revision), EqSerialNum, E30EquipmentSupplier, EqpName
With the recent publication of updates from Ballot 7311A, work on Ballot 7426 is progressing. This proposal adds:
- Lists of open and established ports with associated processes
- Running processes
- Local user accounts
- Firewall status
- Device driver versions
- BIOS information
These additions would give factories significantly greater visibility into the cybersecurity posture of connected equipment, helping support asset management, vulnerability assessment, and compliance programs.
While this ballot failed and a couple voters show hesitance, the majority seem to be in support of publishing this additional information. A few voters have even recommended adding additional data to the ballot. The ballot includes reporting cybersecurity information using a standardized JSON schema file–useful when a GEM interface is not available. The JSON file has a forward-looking schema that allows for more data to be reported (like if E191 is further expanded) without changing the schema using generic name/value data. The ballot also provides a configuration feature to disable categories of cybersecurity data in case sharing that data violates IT policies.
Next Steps
The North America Information & Control Committee will use:
- Cycle 9 for ratification ballots (October 21-November 20, 2026)
- Cycle 7 for general ballots (submission deadline: Monday February 1, 2027; voting window: February 11 – March 15, 2027)
The committee will review voting results, adjudicate comments, and determine final ballot dispositions at the North America Winter SEMI Standards Meetings.
For more information on individual standards, please visit the Industry Standards section on our website.