Device Photolithography: The Mask Shop Information System

A computer-based information and control system, referred to as the Mask Shop Information System (MSIS), assists in running the Bell Telephone Laboratories mask-making facilities at Murray Hill, New Jersey, and Allentown, Pennsylvania. In the planning stage for the new mask-making facility, it was realized that the scheduling and processing information required for efficient control of the flow of jobs would be too complicated to handle with paper work. Furthermore, keeping track of the large number of glass plates passing through the facility would be a problem. Thus, it was decided to develop MSIS. Briefly, MSIS controls the entire mask-making facility and serves as a repository of information on the status of each job, the location of each plate, and the performance of the overall facility. The equipment that makes up the new facilities has been discussed elsewhere. 1-3 The first part of this paper will deal with the functions performed by MSIS and how the system appears to the user; the second part will describe the organization of computer programs and data required to implement MSIS.