  This paper proposed software architecture for operating an automatic
semiconductor manufacturing machine. Recent machines for semiconductor process
are required for high level of automation which are composed of motion control,
machine vision, data acquisition and networking. These functions are executed
through industrial equipments that are generally installed in a computer. The
equipments occupy a great part of system resource and generate a lot of
computation, so the software structure should be designed for efficiency. The
proposed architecture is consisted of four layers and virtual equipments(VEs).
The VEs are made by subclassing the physical equipments(PEs) and the layers are
coded into thread which updates the status of VEs. Subroutines in a program
refer to the pointer of VEs, and direct access to physical equipment are
prohibited. The number of access (NOA) to PEs in typical industrial application
was simulated for the unlimited access structure and the presented structure.
The result showed that the proposed structure was more efficient than typical
ones and irrespective of subroutines. This architecture was also applied to
design a machine operating software and performed automatic wafer dicing.
