Support for Designing Semiconductor Equipment for Saving Energy

Due to the requests from International SEMATECH of the US for energy-saving designs, companies who develop semiconductor processing tool all over the world are required to measure and conserve power consumption in their development processes. In Japan, SEAJ, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan has worked on standardizing such measurements. A power meter with high-speed sampling is needed to measure changes in power consumption as well as the inrush current/power during each process. Therefore, the PZ4000 has started to attract attention.

The PZ4000, like oscilloscopes, enables simultaneous measurement with a Master/Slave (EXT TRIG OUT/IN) configuration. Application software is also available to control the measurement of up to four units, and collect the measured data. Those two features allow the PZ4000 to measuring large scale items such as semiconductor processing tool. In addition, International SEMATECH of the US requires measurement of the following items: Elapsed time / Energy / Average current THD / Max. apparent power / Max. effective power / Min. power factor / Max. current / Average apparent power / Average effective power / Average power factor / Average current, and others. To meet all the requirements, compatibility with application software as well as hardware is important. (Integration is calculated as the sum of the measured value times and the update cycles.)

Data examples (abstract from SEMATECH homepage)

Key Points of the PZ4000 and its Software

Performance required from the power meter

• Measure many parameters simultaneously and calculate data for output
• Acquire rising waveforms (inrush current/power) and calculate them
• Measure multiple channels simultaneously (Max. 4 units)

Benefits for the user

• Displays parameter measurement and voltage/current waveforms of measuring items at the same time, enabling the user to confirm behaviors in equipment in advance and avoid writing incorrectly