Visit the Procter Machinery Guarding web site

SafetyBUS p is first SEMI standard safety fieldbus

A Safety Network International eV product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 24, 2005

SafetyBUS p is the first safety-related SEMI standard for sensor bus technology to be included in the E54 suite of standards.

The rapid emergence of sensor bus technology in the semiconductor industry over the past decade prompted SEMI, the standards organisation for the semiconductor industry, to aggressively pursue a suite of sensor bus standards.

A comprehensive suite of standards has been developed and approved by SEMI as a standard for sensor bus in the industry.

These standards are already having a significant impact with an installed base at many users and OEMs.

SafetyBUS p is the first safety-related SEMI standard for sensor bus technology to be included in the E54 suite of standards, under the designation: E54.15 - sensor/actuator network communication standard for SafetyBUS p.

Along with the development of SEMI safety standards (SEMI S2-0703 Environmental, Health, and Safety Guideline for Semiconductor Equipment) promoting the acceptance and use of programmable safety systems and safety-related networks, the addition of a safety-related fieldbus into E54 enables semiconductor manufacturers to maximise the benefits of safety technology by combining safety fieldbus with programmable safety systems.

The SafetyBUS p protocol is well suited as an enabling technology for sensor bus safety applications within the semiconductor industry.

It is already the most widely used safety network and is based on the deterministic CAN industrial networking protocol, inherently designed for safety.

SafetyBUS p is therefore attractive to semiconductor manufacturers for safety networking.

SEMI compliance requires that a Network Communication Standard (NCS) in E54 supports the SEMI standardised device models (Common Device Model and Specific Device Models).

This required enhancement of the SafetyBUS p protocol specification to support the SEMI NCS and communication of SEMI device object data.

This enhancement specification was developed as part of the standardisation process and will be available from SafetyBUS p Club International after publication in March 2005.

In order for equipment to conform to SEMI standards and interoperate with other safety-related equipment, it is necessary to undertake conformance testing.

The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) will provide SEMI conformance testing of SafetyBUS p devices, in addition to being a SafetyBUS p Conformance Test Centre.

The University of Michigan is ideally suited to take the lead with SEMI and SafetyBUS p conformance testing, having an enviable track record of fieldbus conformance testing incorporating SEMI conformance requirements.

SEMI is the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International organisation, whose primary purposes include bringing together people connected with the semiconductor industry to exchange ideas and work towards solving common technical problems.

This leads to improvement and stabilization of semiconductor industry standards.

SEMI standards are intended to promote worldwide understanding between users and suppliers based upon mutually agreed definitions and product specifications related to semiconductor and flat panels display manufacturing.

SEMI standards are designed to define current practice for both quality and performance, and to drive industry improvements.

The University of Michigan has already worked with SafetyBUS p safety networks in a Reconfigurable Factory Testbed (RFT).

The National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC-RMS) at the University of Michigan has implemented a multi-level safety network architecture in their Reconfigurable Factory Testbed (RFT).

The RFT consists of both real and virtual machines controlled over a communication network coordinated through a unified software architecture.

It is being used to study, verify and transfer reconfigurable manufacturing concepts for industries such as automotive and machine tools.

A multi-layer safety network is implemented to provide safe operation of a serial-parallel machining line in the RFT, but is also being used to study multi-level safety network design and optimisation.

The RFT facility and research into safety networks is especially attractive as it comes at a time when safety networks are being considered as a replacement for point-to-point hard-wired safety in a number of applications.