EtherCAT releases new device standard for the semiconductor equipment industry

Industrial Ethernet technology standards group EtherCAT released device standard ETG.5003-1 and its corresponding nine specific device profiles, the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) for semiconductor industry. The new device profiles extends the use of EtherCAT not only for motion control, I/O, sensors and gateways in semiconductor manufacturing machines and also in industry specific devices such as mass flow controllers or vacuum valves can be implemented directly into the EtherCAT system. On the technical side of this process, Florian Häfele supervises the ETG Semiconductor Technical Working Group and explains: “Since the release of the device profiles developed in 2012, we responded to machine builders’ demands to establish EtherCAT in the semiconductor industry as well to facilitate the creation of new industry-specific devices. We expect that EtherCAT will be found in nearly all tools, at the very latest when the 450 millimeter wafer diameter standard has been adopted for all semiconductor manufacturing machines.” The new profile ETG.5003-1 (Common Device Profile = CDP) describes the general requirements for devices that are published within the specification series ETG.5003. EtherCAT explains: At the moment this concerns nine different device types which are defined in the so-called Specific Device Profiles (SDP). Together with the CDP they provide the starting poi...