1. Purpose and scope
Concept work decides how the tool will meet its requirements. It compares platform options, such as a cluster of process modules around a shared handler or a standalone tool, process module or chamber concepts, sources and optics, and control architectures, and chooses one with evidence. It then splits the tool into subsystems, writes a specification and interface documents for each, and allocates the performance error budget so that subsystem teams can design in parallel.
The stage closes with two decisions taken together. The business decides whether to fund development, on a business case that includes service and upgrade revenue and a cost of ownership position against the customer's alternatives. Engineering freezes the system architecture and subsystem interfaces. Both are needed: a funded programme on an unstable architecture loses time, and a frozen architecture without a business case is a study.
Safety and compliance are architecture questions. The safety concept and hazard analysis start here, because interlocks, guarding and the separation of safety circuits from software control are decided with the architecture. The route to conformity, such as an independent SEMI S2 and SEMI S8 evaluation and CE marking under the machinery and EMC rules for some markets, is chosen now so it can be designed in.
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