Fi Software

FI software is the control layer that drives the FI robot itself — the state machine, motion sequencer, and recipe logic running on the EFEM controller, separate from the robot's mechanical arm and end-effector. The robot can only move where this software tells it to; FI software is what turns "pick wafer 7 from load port 2" into an actual coordinated sequence of joint moves, vacuum/edge-grip commands, and sensor checks.

Interlocks are most of what this software actually does. The motion commands themselves are simple geometry — move here, grip, move there — but FI software spends most of its logic checking whether it's safe to execute each step: is the load port door fully open, did the slot mapper clear this wafer, is the destination load lock actually ready. A robot that executes a motion command without these checks is how wafers get dropped or chambers get damaged, so the interlock layer is where most of the software's complexity lives, not the trajectory planner.

It's the piece that survives a robot swap. Fabs replace or rebuild FI robot hardware — a new end-effector, a motor refresh — more often than they rewrite the control software, since the recipe logic, interlock conditions, and SECS/GEM reporting hooks mostly stay the same across hardware generations. That separation is deliberate: it lets a tool vendor update the mechanical robot without forcing every fab running that tool to requalify an entirely new control system.

FI software is the part of the FI-robot system nobody sees moving, but it's what turns a physically capable robot arm into something a fab's automation can actually trust to run unattended for a full shift.