1. Purpose of the gate
Alpha proved the tool could work for one customer. Beta must prove it works repeatably: across several tools, at several customer sites, built close enough to the production design that the results can be carried forward into qualification and production. Beta shipment approval is therefore a decision about three things at once: which customers, under what agreements and criteria; which design, under configuration control; and which suppliers, on a path to production qualification.
The beta configuration matters more than it first appears. If beta tools differ materially from what will be sold, the beta evidence must be repeated later, and customers who qualify a beta configuration may find the production tool is not the tool they qualified. The aim is a beta design baseline that includes every change needed to meet the evaluation criteria, under formal change control, built where possible with production suppliers.
The gate criteria are an approved beta customer selection; signed beta evaluation agreements with success criteria; a beta design baseline under configuration control; and a supplier qualification plan agreed for production suppliers. Three key decisions are frozen here: beta configuration and design baseline, taken at this gate; evaluation success criteria; and equipment security architecture and remote access.
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