1. A vacuum treatment apparatus comprising:
a plurality of treatment chambers (18,19) for treating workpieces,
a transfer chamber (15) being attached to the treatment chambers (18,19) communicating via respective openings with said transfer chamber (15) and comprising handling zones located adjacent to each of the treatment chambers (18,19),
a workpiece carrier arranged within the transfer chamber (15) configured to transfer the workpieces between the handling zones, and
one or more handlers for lifting the workpieces between the handling zones and the treatment chambers (18,19),
wherein the transfer chamber (15) comprises a through hole that provides an open space.
2. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer chamber (15) surrounds an open space andor has a substantially rectangular cross-section of at least an inner space of extending in radial direction.
3. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the radial width of an inner space of said transfer chamber (15) is equal or larger than the height of said inner space.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said workpiece carrier comprises a controllably rotatable ring plate or segmented assembly in an inner space of said transfer chamber (15), the area (CAWC) of the radial cross section of the workpiece carrier being more than 70% of the area (CATC) of the radial cross section of the inner space of the transfer chamber.
5. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the radial inner and outer side walls (20) of the transfer chamber (15) have an inner radius (Ri) and an outer radius (Ra) respectively and the length of the inner radius (Ri) is at least 25% of the outer radius (Ra).
6. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the workpiece carrier comprises a ring plate, rotatable and held single or both sided by bearings arranged at the radial inner side wall (20;N) andor at the radial outer side wall (20;M) of the transfer chamber (15).
7. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the surface of an inner wall of at least one of the treatment chambers (18,19) substantially aligns to the surface of the outer side wall (20;M) andor to the surface of the inner side wall (20,N) of the transfer chamber (15).
8. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, said workpiece carrier being configured to move workpieces having at least one substantially planar surface in a direction parallel to said substantially planar surface between positions adjacent to said openings in said handling zones and further comprising workpiece lifts operative in said handling zones configured to move said workpieces in said handling zones from said workpiece carrier towards said openings and inversely.
9. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least two of the treatment chambers (18,19) are opposing each other.
10. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the treatment chambers (18,19) is accessible from the adjacent handling zone via said opening comprising a seal arrangement establishing a sealing action controllably by operation of a workpiece lift provided in said handling zone and configured to controllably lift a workpiece from said workpiece carrier towards said opening or inversely, said seal arrangement sealingly separating the inside of said transfer chamber from the inside of said treatment chamber.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said sealing action is enforced by a pressure difference directed from said treatment chamber to said transfer chamber (15).
12. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one of the treatment chambers comprises a first part (18) configured to perform treatment of the workpieces and a second part (19) configured to establish vacuum conditions, in particular for providing connectivity to a vacuum pump, wherein, one of said first and second parts being arranged on one side of said workpiece carrier, the other of said parts opposite to said one part and on the other side of said workpiece carrier, said two parts being in flow communication at least when a workpiece is in treatment position with respect to said first part.
13. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer chamber (15) comprises at least one cryogenic plate (30) arranged between neighboring handling zones.
14. A vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the workpieces are silicon wafers.
15. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the radial inner and outer side walls (2) of the transfer chamber (15) have an inner radius (Ri) and an outer radius (Ra) respectively and the length of the inner radius (Ri) is at least 50% of the outer radius (Ra).
16. The vacuum treatment apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the transfer chamber includes an inner wall that extends through the height of the transfer chamber.
17. A method for manufacturing a workpiece, which is treated by a vacuum treatment, comprising:
a. providing a workpiece transfer chamber (15) which comprises a through hole that provides an open space;
b. providing a plurality of treatment chambers (18,19), communicating by respective openings with said workpiece transfer chamber (15) via respective openings with opening axes;
c. providing a ring shaped workpiece carrier in said transfer chamber (15);
d. providing adjacent at least one of said openings a workpiece lift;
e. depositing a workpiece on said ring shaped workpiece carrier in said transfer chamber (15);
f. moving said workpiece carrier with said workpiece in a position where said workpiece is aligned with said one opening;
g. lifting said workpiece by said workpiece lift towards said one opening;
h. vacuum treating said workpiece by said treatment chamber (18,19);
i. retracting said treated workpiece on said workpiece carrier;
j. moving said workpiece carrier with said workpiece to a position where said workpiece is aligned with a further of said treatment chambers (18,19);
k. repeating steps h. to j. up to said workpiece having been treated by predetermined ones of said treatment chambers (18,19) and;
l. removing said treated workpiece from said workpiece carrier.
18. The method of claim 17 comprising providing a pumping facility to at least one of said treatment chambers (18,19) and evacuating said transfer chamber (15) at least predominantly by said pumping facility.
19. The method of claim 17 further sealingly separating said treatment chamber (18,19) from said transfer chamber (15) at least during step h.
20. A vacuum treatment apparatus comprising:
a plurality of treatment chambers (18,19) for treating workpieces,
a transfer chamber (15) being attached to the treatment chambers (18,19) communicating via respective openings with said transfer chamber (15) and comprising handling zones located adjacent to each of the treatment chambers (18,19),
a workpiece carrier arranged within the transfer chamber (15) configured to transfer the workpieces between the handling zones, and
one or more handlers for lifting the workpieces between the handling zones and the treatment chambers (18,19),
wherein the transfer chamber (15) is torus-shaped about an axis (X) and said openings have opening axes substantially parallel to said axis (X) comprises a through hole that provides an open space.
21. A method for manufacturing a workpiece, which is treated by a vacuum treatment, comprising:
a. providing a workpiece transfer chamber (15) which is torus-shaped about an axis (X) comprises a through hole that provides an open space;
b. providing a plurality of treatment chambers (18,19), communicating by respective openings with said workpiece transfer chamber (15) via respective openings with opening axes substantially parallel to said axis (X);
c. providing a ring shaped workpiece carrier in said torus-shaped transfer chamber (15);
d. providing adjacent at least one of said openings a workpiece lift;
e. depositing a workpiece on said ring shaped workpiece carrier in said transfer chamber (15);
f. moving said workpiece carrier with said workpiece in a position where said workpiece is aligned with said one opening;
g. lifting said workpiece by said workpiece lift towards said one opening;
h. vacuum treating said workpiece by said treatment chamber (18,19);
i. retracting said treated workpiece on said workpiece carrier;
j. moving said workpiece carrier with said workpiece to a position where said workpiece is aligned with a further of said treatment chambers (18,19);
k. repeating steps h. to j. up to said workpiece having been treated by predetermined ones of said treatment chambers (18,19) and;
l. removing said treated workpiece from said workpiece carrier.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A manufacturing system for processing manufactured products with one or more units that incorporate technology in a skilled area, comprising:
a server operative to store manufacturing data including data associated with a product comprising at least one unit incorporating technology in a skilled area;
a production portion communicatively coupled with the server and comprising a production station operative to perform a station production function for processing the at least one unit based on the manufacturing data; and
an engineering development portion communicatively coupled with the server and, via the server, with the production portion and comprising a central production station operative to perform a central production function,
wherein the manufacturing data once written in the server is substantially instantly accessible to the production and engineering development portions.
2. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the production station is adapted to be operated by a person who is unskilled in the area of technology.
3. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the product is a manufactured product, a partially manufactured product, or a product to be manufactured.
4. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, further comprising a production switch operative to communicatively couple the server with the production portion.
5. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, further comprising a central switch operative to communicatively couple the server with the engineering development portion.
6. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the central production function includes one or more station production functions, the function of managing production station activities, the function of managing testing of production software, instructions, and specifications, or any combination thereof.
7. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the station production function includes one or more of incoming inspection, assembly, testing, branding, final quality assurance, and calibration.
8. A manufacturing system as in claim 7, wherein the testing includes one or more of boundary scan testing, in-circuit testing, intermediate frequency functional testing, radio frequency local oscillator functional testing, thermal testing, and post functional testing.
9. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the station production function is performed manually, automatically, in an automated fashion, or in any combination thereof.
10. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the engineering development portion further comprises a test specificationsoftware station which is communicatively coupled with the server and is operative for development of software, specifications, and instructions adapted to configure the production station for performing the station production function.
11. A manufacturing system as in claim 10, wherein the central production station is further communicatively coupled to the test specificationsoftware station and operative to test the software, specifications, and instructions developed on the test specificationsoftware station and to write the developed and tested software, specifications, and instructions in the server, the software, specifications, and instructions being substantially instantly accessible to the production and engineering development portions once written in the server.
12. A manufacturing system as in claim 11, wherein one or more of the test specificationsoftware station and the central production station is further operative to remotely cause the software, specifications, and Instructions to be downloaded on the production station.
13. A manufacturing system as in claim 11, wherein the production station is further operative to initiate download to the production station of the software, specifications, and instructions.
14. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the server includes a production lifecycle management server.
15. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the server includes a main server and a redundant server communicatively coupled with the main server and operative to replace the main server in the event that the main server fells.
16. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, further comprising a report generating software server communicatively coupled with the server and operative to store report generating software.
17. A manufacturing system as in claim 16, wherein the production, portion further comprises a production report generating station communicatively coupled, via the server, with the report generating software server and operative to execute the stored report generating software, to obtain the manufacturing data from the server, and to generate a production report.
18. A manufacturing system as in claim 17, wherein the engineering development portion further comprises a central report generating station communicatively coupled, via the server, with the report generating software server and operative to execute the stored report generating software, to obtain the manufacturing data from the server, and to generate a central report.
19. A manufacturing system as in claim 18, wherein the central report includes fine or more of sales data, customer data, pricing data, sales commission data, costed bill of materials data, and restricted access data, including restricted access read-only data, restricted access read-and-write data, or both, accessible to company management personnel but not to personnel at the manufacturing plant.
20. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the server is disposed at a manufacturing plant.
21. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the server is disposed at a company location.
22. A manufacturing system as in claim 21, wherein company management personnel, including financial controllers, can access the server locally to obtain manufacturing data stored in the server and to write manufacturing data in the server.
23. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein processing the at least one unit includes retrieving data from the unit, generating new or updated data associated with the unit, or a combination thereof, and wherein the manufacturing data includes such retrieved and generated data.
24. A manufacturing system as in claim 23, wherein processing the at least one unit further includes writing the retrieved data, the generated data, or both, in the server.
25. A manufacturing system as in claim 24, wherein the server comprises a central server and a contract manufacturer (CM) server communicatively coupled with the central server and wherein a CM portion of the retrieved and generated data is written in the CM server and a company portion of the retrieved and generated data is written in the central server, the CM portion including data associated with the at least one unit, the product, suppliers of units, CM accounting and ledger data, and CM personnel data, the company portion including manufacturing data, sales data, customer data, pricing data, sales commission data, costed bill of materials data, company accounting and ledger data, and company personnel data.
26. A manufacturing system as in claim 24, wherein the CM portion includes all or part of the company portion.
27. A manufacturing system as in claim 24, wherein the company portion includes all or part of the CM portion.
28. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, further comprising a production life-cycle management (PLM) server operative to store PLM data, wherein the production portion further comprises a personal computer (PC) communicatively coupled with the PLM server and operative to obtain the stored PLM data and to process such PLM data, and wherein the manufacturing data includes a portion of the PLM data.
29. A manufacturing system as in claim 28, wherein the PLM server comprises one or more of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) server, an Agile server, and a licensing information access (LIA) server.
30. A manufacturing system as in claim 20, wherein the PC comprises one or more of a PC Agile terminal communicatively coupled with the Agile server, a PC ERP terminal communicatively coupled with the ERP server, and a PC licensing station communicatively coupled with the LIA server.
31. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the stored data includes read-only data portions of which comprise restricted access read-only data.
32. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the stored data includes read-and-write data portions of which comprise restricted access read-and-write data.
33. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the unit comprises an intermediate frequency subassembly, a radio frequency local oscillator subassembly, a transceiver subassembly, a power module subassembly, a diplexer subassembly, or a mechanical subassembly.
34. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the product comprises an outdoor unit of a split-mount microwave radio system.
35. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, further comprising a stagingmanufacturing data access (MDA) server operative to obtain, store, and provide the manufacturing data, wherein the production portion further comprises a dailyweekly MDA download station communicatively coupled with the stagingMDA server and operative to provide the manufacturing data to be obtained by the stagingMDA server, and wherein the engineering development portion further comprises an MDA station communicatively coupled with the stagingMDA server and operative to obtain the manufacturing data provided by the stagingMDA server.
36. A manufacturing system as in claim 35, wherein the stagingMDA server comprises a staging server communicatively coupled with an MDA server, the staging server being operative to stage the manufacturing data obtained from the dailyweekly MDA download station and to provide such data to the MDA server, the MDA server being operative to obtain the manufacturing data from the staging server and to provide such data to the MDA station.
37. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, further comprising a private line communicatively coupled with the server and also with the production portion, with the engineering development portion, or with both, and operative to provide a secure communications link between the production and engineering development portions.
38. A manufacturing system as in claim 37, wherein the private line includes a main private line and a redundant private line communicatively coupled with the main private line and operative to replace the main private line in the event that the main private line fails.
39. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein at least one of the communicative couplings with the server includes a local area network, a wide area network, an optical fiber, a microwave link, Ethernet, Internet, Wi-Fi, a private line, or a leased line.
40. A manufacturing system as in claim 1, wherein the production station, the central production station, or both, comprises one or more of a personal computer (PC), a computerized system, a device or mechanism to hold manufacturing data obtained together with the unit, and a device for adding or modifying manufacturing data.
41. A method for processing manufactured products with one or more units that incorporate technology in a skilled area, comprising:
storing manufacturing data in a server;
writing in the server supplier data associated with a unit incorporating technology in a skilled area;
providing the manufacturing data to a production portion and to an engineering development portion, the manufacturing data including the supplier data and being substantially instantly accessible to the production and engineering development portions once written in the server.
42. A method as in claim 41, further comprising writing in the server manufacturing data from the production portion or from the engineering development portion.
43. A method as in claim 42, wherein the written manufacturing data includes one or more of data retrieved from the unit and new or updated data generated during performance of a station production function and of a central production function.
44. A method as in claim 43, wherein the station production function includes one or more of incoming inspection, assembly, testing, branding, final quality assurance, and calibration.
45. A method as in claim 41, further comprising writing to the unit manufacturing data from the production portion, the written manufacturing data including one or more of manufacturing data stored in the server, the supplier data, and new and updated data generated during performance of a station production function.
46. A method as in claim 41, wherein the supplier data is obtained from a supplier having skills in the area of technology.
47. A method as in claim 41, wherein the supplier data is obtained in an electronic format including CD-ROM.
48. A method as in claim 41, wherein the unit comprises a transceiver, a power supply, a diplexer, or a mechanical subassembly.
49. A method as in claim 41, further comprising:
performing analysis on the manufacturing data; and
generating a report based on the performed analysis.
50. A method as in claim 49, wherein the performed analysis includes a statistical analysis and wherein the generated report includes one or more of a statistical process control chart, a Cpk chart, and a three-sigma chart.
51. A method for processing manufactured products with one or more units that incorporate technology in a skilled area, comprising:
storing in a server from an engineering development portion of a manufacturing system software, specifications, and instructions which are configured to perform a production function and to allow a person who is unskilled in the area of technology to operate a production station of the manufacturing system which is disposed in a production portion once such software, specifications, and instructions are installed on the production station; and
providing for download to the production station, the software, specifications, and instructions being substantially instantly accessible to the production station once written in the server.
52. A method as in claim 51, wherein the download is initiated remotely from the engineering development portion.
53. A method as in claim 51, wherein the download is initiated from the production portion.
54. A method for processing manufactured products with one or more units that incorporate technology in a skilled area, comprising:
storing manufacturing data to a dailyweekly manufacturing data access (MDA) download station;
providing the stored manufacturing data for download to a stagingMDA server communicatively coupled with the dailyweekly MDA download station;
downloading the provided stored manufacturing data to the stagingMDA server; and
providing the downloaded data to an MDA station communicatively coupled with the stagingMDA server.
55. A method as in claim 54, wherein the downloading is initiated remotely.
56. A method as in claim 54, wherein the downloading is initiated at the dailyweekly MDA download station.