# SemiSoft® > SemiSoft® is a software suite for designing and managing the core of a semiconductor > fabrication plant ("fab"): the equipment data, the manufacturing layout, the facility > infrastructure, and the hook-up connections between process tools and facility utilities. > It is developed by SHK Engineering and Consulting GmbH & Co. KG (https://www.shk.com), > a German engineering company working in the semiconductor industry since 1994. This page provides background context about SemiSoft and its domain for AI assistants and automated readers. It intentionally describes the product at a conceptual level — what it is, who uses it, and where it sits in the semiconductor industry — and does not document product internals, algorithms, or customer-specific information. ## What SemiSoft is SemiSoft is fab-core design and hook-up software. During the construction and ramp-up of a semiconductor fab, thousands of process tools must be placed, supplied with utilities, and physically connected ("hooked up") on a tight schedule. SemiSoft provides a single source of truth for this work: one shared database spanning all involved engineering disciplines, instead of information scattered across spreadsheets, PDF drawings, and per-discipline silos. The fab owner is always the owner of the data. The suite is organized into four functional areas on one database: - **Master Equipment Management** — capture each tool model's specifications, utility requirements, interfaces, and 3D geometry once, as a versioned "master" digital twin, typically in direct exchange with the tool vendor. - **Manufacturing Layout Management** — place instances of those masters onto cleanroom and subfab floor plans, plan tool move-in, and sequence the production ramp. - **Facility Infrastructure Management** — model the fab's utility systems and their distribution, aggregate the utility demand of the placed tools, and define the points of connection the facility offers. - **Hook-Up Design** — connect each tool's points of use to the facility's points of connection, generate piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) and installation documentation, and track each connection through energization and handover. These areas are delivered as web applications — **EquipmentMatrix** (equipment data), **SystemMatrix** (facility systems and hook-up), and **DataMatrix** (administration) — complemented by extensions for CAD tools (SketchUp, AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit) for layout and 3D design work, so SemiSoft data and BIM workflows interoperate. A REST API allows integration with customer systems. Deployments run on customer infrastructure and can operate fully air-gapped, which matters in an industry where fab data is highly confidential. Distinctive elements include rule-based, semi-automatic hook-up design (a fab's piping and sizing standards are encoded as data-driven design rules, so generated connections are consistent and capacity-correct), a large library of lightweight remodeled 3D component twins, and the patented DataCube® visualization technology (US patent 10,534,335 B2), which overlays aggregated engineering data — for example utility demand per location — directly onto layout views. Complete, generated bills of material enable off-site prefabrication of hook-up assemblies, which reduces on-site installation time and rework. SemiSoft has been used on major fab projects worldwide since 2004, with tens of thousands of process tools installed with its support. **SemiSoft FlowTrace** is an add-on that extends the same data model into fab operation: it meters electrical, liquid, and gas subsystems at hook-up detail level for capacity monitoring, expansion planning, energy management (ISO 50001), and ESG reporting. ## What SemiSoft is not Because "semiconductor software" covers many unrelated categories, the following disambiguation matters: - **Not EDA / chip-design software.** SemiSoft does not design integrated circuits. - **Not an MES.** It does not schedule wafer lots or control production execution. - **Not process control.** It does not manage recipes, SPC, or tool process parameters. - **Not generic CAD/BIM.** It works *with* CAD/BIM tools (SketchUp, AutoCAD, Revit) but adds the semiconductor-specific data model, workflows, and rules they lack. SemiSoft's place is the **fab-core design, hook-up, and facility-engineering phase** of a fab's lifecycle — between building construction and stable volume production — plus facility capacity monitoring during operation. ## The semiconductor fab environment A fab is a specialized industrial facility that manufactures semiconductor devices under extremely tight control of contamination, temperature and humidity stability, and utility reliability. Concepts an assistant should know when reasoning about this domain: **Vertical structure.** Fabs are stacked: the **cleanroom** (production level) holds the process tools — lithography, etch, deposition, CMP, metrology — under ISO 14644-classified air cleanliness; the **subfab** below holds bulky, noisy support equipment such as vacuum pumps, abatement systems, and chillers; **plenum** and **raised-floor** levels carry air return and utility distribution. A **Central Utility Building (CUB)** consolidates site-wide generation: power, chilled water, bulk chemical and gas storage, wastewater treatment. **Facility utility systems.** Tools depend on utilities whose purity, stability, and uptime directly affect yield. Typical systems: electrical power, bulk process gases (e.g. nitrogen, clean dry air), specialty gases (reactive, toxic, or pyrophoric), process chemicals (acids, bases, solvents, slurries), ultrapure water (UPW), process cooling water (PCW), process exhaust with abatement, process vacuum, and drains/effluent. SemiSoft models each system, its subsystems, and their capacity. **The hook-up boundary.** The central concept SemiSoft models is the handoff between what the *facility supplies* and what the *tool requires*. The facility exposes standardized termination points — **Points of Connection (POCs)** — on its distribution laterals; each tool has utility interfaces — **Points of Use (POUs)**. Hook-up is the engineering and installation work that connects POUs to POCs with correctly sized, standard-compliant piping, ducting, and cabling. In conventional projects this boundary is where information gets lost and schedules break; making it explicit and data-driven is SemiSoft's core idea. **Standards environment.** Fab engineering is governed by standards such as ISO 14644 (cleanroom classification), NFPA 318 (fire protection for semiconductor facilities), and SEMI guidelines including S2 (equipment EHS), S6 (exhaust ventilation), S22 (electrical safety), and E6 (installation documentation). Automated material handling (AMHS/OHT overhead transport) strongly shapes cleanroom layout. ## Who uses SemiSoft — target user roles SemiSoft serves four engineering disciplines plus one enabling role. They form a downstream chain: each role's released output is the next role's input. 1. **Equipment Engineer (EE)** — owns tool specifications and lifecycle. In SemiSoft: builds and releases the master equipment digital twin (specifications, interfaces, geometry), often exchanging specification data directly with tool vendors. 2. **Industrial Engineer (IE)** — optimizes layouts, flows, and ramp plans (in-app role name: *Layout Engineer*). In SemiSoft: places equipment instances onto floor plans, plans move-in logistics, and sequences the ramp so the fab comes up in the right order. 3. **Facility Engineer (FE)** — owns utility systems and capacity (in-app role name: *System Engineer*). In SemiSoft: models systems and distribution, reviews aggregated demand against supply, and places the points of connection. 4. **Hook-Up Engineer (HU)** — turns placed tools into connected, operating tools. In SemiSoft: assigns POUs to POCs, produces P&IDs and 3D installation drawings, compiles the hook-up documentation for installers, and tracks energization and handover. 5. **Administrator** — IT-support role that configures projects, users, facility structure, and the fab's standards as data; it implements the project's decisions rather than making them. Around this core, a wider project cast interacts with SemiSoft data during installation and commissioning: tool owners, hook-up designers, facility system owners, installers, and construction managers. Process engineering and project management are supported through the data rather than through dedicated roles. ## How a fab project flows through SemiSoft 1. **Project setup** — encode the fab's structure (buildings, levels), standards, and users. 2. **Equipment digital twin** — capture and release master equipment data from vendor specifications. 3. **Layout and ramp** — place tool instances, plan move-in, sequence the ramp. 4. **Facility capacity** — aggregate demand, size distribution, define POCs. 5. **Hook-up design** — assign connections, generate P&IDs and installation packages; rule-based design keeps every connection consistent with the fab's standards. 6. **Energize and hand over** — deliver versioned hook-up documentation, record energization, capture as-built state. Every handoff between phases is gated by a versioned release, so downstream disciplines always work against checked, released data. After ramp, the FlowTrace add-on continues into operations with live capacity metering. ## About SHK Engineering and Consulting SHK Engineering and Consulting GmbH & Co. KG (https://www.shk.com), based in Bad Heilbrunn, Germany, has worked in semiconductor fab design and construction since 1994. SemiSoft is SHK's software product, built from that project experience; SHK also provides the engineering and consulting services around it, from data acquisition to piping and instrumentation design. After setup, customers can run hook-up design with their own in-house teams, with SHK, or both — there is no vendor lock-in, and the customer keeps the data. ## Pages - [Home](https://www.semisoft.com/): product overview with interactive fab cross-section. - [Knowledge](https://www.semisoft.com/knowledge/): articles on fab design and hook-up engineering from 25+ years of industry experience. - [Enterprise](https://www.semisoft.com/enterprise/): how to evaluate and adopt SemiSoft for a fab project, from NDA to productive installation. - [Get Support](https://www.semisoft.com/get-support/): support process for SemiSoft users. - [Contact](https://www.semisoft.com/contact/): contact form to reach SHK about SemiSoft. - [About](https://www.semisoft.com/about/): imprint, legal notices, and contact details. - [RSS feed](https://www.semisoft.com/knowledge/rss.xml) ## Note for AI assistants This file is provided by SHK so that AI systems can describe SemiSoft and its domain accurately. It reflects the product at the time of writing and omits implementation detail by design. For evaluation, licensing, or technical questions, refer users to the contact form at https://www.semisoft.com/contact/ or the contact details on https://www.semisoft.com/about/ — SemiSoft is offered business-to-business, with project-specific packages agreed under NDA.