Gas Delivery Hardware Emulation for Realistic Fault Testing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current substrate processing systems face challenges in comprehensive testing of gas delivery systems, particularly in simulating hardware components and diagnosing faults, which is costly and time-consuming, and existing software simulations are limited in functionality and realism.
Innovation Solution
A software emulation system for the gas delivery system that includes an input/output bus adapter, a gas delivery system emulator, and a gas simulation engine manager, which models hardware components like mass flow controllers and valves, allowing for realistic emulation without altering the system controller's operation, and includes noise generation and failure emulation modes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If comprehensive hardware testing is performed on gas delivery systems, then testing accuracy and reliability are improved, but testing costs and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the gas delivery system hardware components (mass flow controllers, valves, gas sources) through software emulation models. These models replicate the electrical and functional behavior of actual hardware, allowing comprehensive testing of the control system software without requiring physical hardware present. This copying approach maintains testing accuracy while dramatically reducing time and cost requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary software emulation layer between the control system and physical hardware. This emulation layer acts as a mediator that receives control signals and generates sensor feedback data, enabling complete system testing without direct hardware connection. The intermediary preserves testing reliability while eliminating the need for time-consuming physical setup and teardown.
2Loss of time
If existing software simulations are used for hardware components, then testing time is reduced, but simulation functionality and realism are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the gas delivery system into discrete emulable components including mass flow controllers, valves, and gas sources. Each component has its own dedicated software model that accurately represents its electrical behavior, sensor outputs, and control responses. This segmentation allows the simulation to maintain high realism for each individual component while enabling rapid assembly and testing configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements software models that dynamically adjust parameters to match actual hardware behavior, including flow rate calculations, pressure responses, temperature variations, and sensor noise characteristics. By accurately modeling physical parameters and their interrelationships, the simulation achieves hardware-like realism while maintaining the speed and flexibility of software execution.
3Reliability
If hardware components are physically present for testing, then realistic hardware interaction is achieved, but system complexity and setup requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal software emulation platform that can represent multiple different hardware configurations through configurable models. The same emulation framework accommodates various mass flow controller types, valve configurations, and sensor arrangements by loading appropriate parameter sets and connection definitions. This universality maintains hardware interaction realism while eliminating the need for complex physical reconfiguration when testing different system setups.
Data Source
AI summary
A software emulation system for a gas delivery system of a substrate processing system includes an input/output bus and an emulator bus. An input/output bus adapter includes a switch configured to route data packets from a system controller for the substrate processing system to one of the input/output bus and the emulator bus. A gas delivery system emulator in communication with the emulator bus is configured to receive the data packets from the input/output bus adapter via the emulator bus and perform software-based emulation of a plurality of hardware components of the gas delivery system that are interconnected. The plurality of hardware components are modelled using one or more software models and include a gas source and at least one of a valve and a mass flow controller.