ETEL's Motion Controller Offers Real-Time Processing for Complex Manufacturing

ETEL’s new UltimET Advanced is a powerful and versatile multi-axis motion controller now available to bring fast real-time processing and a higher level of flexibility to a variety of complex manufacturing applications. This standalone controller from ETEL, a Heidenhain company, is perfect for high-level machine processes in the electronics and automation industries, and of special note in front- and back-end semiconductor manufacturing operations.

As motion control architecture has increased in complexity including the larger amounts of data processing required, so has this expansion of the ETEL motion controller line. With its embedded real-time operating system, quad-core processor, and proprietary algorithms, the UltimET Advanced’s architecture has been expanded to meet this challenge.

For example, many front- and back-end semiconductor applications require precise control of movements with multiple axes and powerful controllers to make on-the-fly calculations, correct motion trajectories, and must compensate for environmental factors that affect overall system accuracy. Typically, these types of tasks are handled by the host PC which executes the code before sending data back to the controller. This creates limitations in speed and code size. The UltimET Advanced is a standalone “box format” motion controller with an embedded real-time operating system that allows it to both compile and execute a customer’s code, which reduces latency and frees up the PC’s resources. This is accomplished through its quad-core processor which dedicates one of its cores to customer processes and computations.

The UltimET Advanced allows for incredibly fast, multi-axis motions with the high bandwidth that ETEL AccurET line of controllers typically provide along with TransnET’s 1ns communication synchronization, delivering best-in-class motion trajectory performance. Along with computation speed, the architecture allows for easy integration of analog and digital external sensor data into the control loop which provides real-time motion system performance monitoring and critical data logging. All of this ensures the machine’s reliability over its lifetime.  

Other features include a free development environment (so that the customer’s code is not IP dependent) and extended interfacing capabilities such as PCIe and TCP/IP.  To make the most out of these features, ETEL offers a consulting service to ensure that a customer’s machine can reach its highest potential in performance that the UltimET Advanced was designed to offer.