Re: Boat versus Cassette (long answer)

[Richard Lippincott <rlippinc -at- BEV -dot- ETN -dot- COM>]

Caution: Long Answer.

Scott, you may have come to the right place. BTW, nice job on illustrating
the wafer and cassette.

I believe that you should continue to use the correct, industry standard
terminology. In order to get an additional industry opinion, I've taken the
liberty of forwarding your message to the tech writers at our Austin division
(none of them currently subscribe to this list) and suggested that they also
send comments.

I did a quick check, and although it appears you're using (unless you bought
some equipment from Austin) some "Brand X" implanters, I'm sure they used
the same terminology that we do at Eaton. I can tell you for a fact that
the operating manuals for the NV-10, NV-20, NV-GSD, and NV-GSD/HE series all
use the terms "cassette" as you have defined it. As the quartz boats are
not used during the ion implantation phase, the word "boat", so far as I
know, does not appear in any of our tech manuals.

The newer generation implanters, of course, operate using a GUI. I know for
a fact that the word "boat" does not appear anywhere on the GUI, but the
word "cassette" pops up all over the place.

I checked with another of our writers, he was formerly an instructor at
Varian. They use the same terminology we do.

You've hit the nail on the head: your company is out of synch with the rest
of the industry. As a result, inexperienced operators run the risk of
confusion. Although I'm sure that your company has a good training program
for the operators, there's bound to be questions caused by this. To the
inexperienced user, does the use of the word "cassette" in the implanter
Op Guide imply that you can use the quartz container in the ion implanter?
I don't think one of those puppies would survive a trip through the load
lock of the NV-GSD series. Talk about particle contamination......

The next problem comes when your operators go to training, and come to
someplace like Eaton or Varian for training. The instructors are going to
be throwing the word "cassette" at them all the time, possibly causing
confusion. Also, our product support people (awaiting by the phone, and
eager to help you with your technical problems) are expecting the word
"cassette" to mean something and "boat" to mean something else.

You've said that the operators are indifferent, and will go with the flow.
Given that information, it seems as though the only reason to retain "boat"
for the plastic carrier is to maintain a company tradition of some sort.
(Well, more realistically, because some of the more senior people may not
want to change a habit.)

Of course, your company can't control what Eaton, Varian, or Applied call
the cassettes, but you can control what Micron calls them. Essentially,
we've forced the word "cassette" on you for the ion implantation phase.

Yes, if the operators want to -call- a cassette a boat, you can't stop them.
But what you can do is make sure the terminology in the manuals is consistent
with your other company manuals, and with the rest of the industry. That
consistency will provide clearer communication, the goal of a technical
communicator.

I hope this helps, and if you have need of any other information feel free
to contact me.

Rick Lippincott
Eaton Semiconductor
Beverly, MA
rlippinc -at- bev -dot- etn -dot- com