By James Amano, International Standards, SEMI
At its recent Spring 2017 meeting, the North American Regional Standards Committee (NARSC) approved formation of a Taiwan chapter of the global SEMI Standards Automation Technology Committee. Taiwan joins existing Automation Technology chapters active in Japan and Europe. The Taiwan chapter will be led by K.C. Chou (ASE), C.S. Wu (MIRDC), Jen-Hui Tsai (Mechanical & Mechatronics Systems Research Laboratories, ITRI), and Gwo-Sheng Peng (Center for Measurement Standards, ITRI).
Co-Chair Chou explains the need for the Taiwan chapter: “SEMI has a strong reputation for successful standardization, which is why the Taiwan PCB industry has selected the global SEMI Standards platform to develop consensus on equipment communication and other manufacturing areas where standards are needed to drive down cost.”
The initial focus of the Taiwan chapter will be to develop a guide for PCB equipment communication interfaces. The guide will be based on SEMI E4: SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 1 Message Transfer (SECS-I), SEMI E5: SEMI Equipment Communications Standard 2 Message Content (SECS-II), E37: High-Speed SECS Message Services (HSMS) Generic Services, E37.1: High-Speed SECS Message Services (HSMS) Generic Services, and E30: Generic Model for Communications and Control of Manufacturing Equipment (GEM).
David Lai of the Taiwan Printed Circuit Association comments: “Without automation standards, it will be difficult for the PCB industry to achieve its ambitious performance targets. In order to fulfill the goal of PCB automation, the standard will simplify the implementation of data collection & analytics, M2M communication and datamation step by step. Therefore, I am pleased that activities in the Taiwan SEMI Standards Automation Technology TC Chapter are underway.”
While the initial chapters of the Automation Technology Committee are located in Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, all interested parties, regardless of location, are invited to join in the global effort. To get involved, please contact your local SEMI Standards staff or visit: www.semi.org/standards.