Dual-Arm Cluster Tool Scheduling for Reentrant Wafer Flows

• DOI: 10.3390/electronics12112411
• Publication Date: 2023-05-26T05:52:43Z
• Authors: Tairan Song; Yan Qiao; Yunfang He; Naiqi Wu; Zhiwu Li; Bin Liu
• Keywords: Reentrancy; Semiconductor device fabrication; Wafer fabrication

Cluster tools are the key equipment in semiconductor manufacturing systems. They have been widely adopted for many wafer fabrication processes, such as chemical and physical vapor deposition processes. Reentrant flows commonly seen cluster tool operations It is very complicated to schedule with reentrant For a dual-arm two-time reentering, existing studies point out that one-wafer periodical (1-WP) can be found, it optimal terms of productivity. However, some wafers should processed at PMs more than two times. This gives rise question whether there still exists 1-WP number reentering times being cycle time reach lower bound. problem open, this what work wants tackle. k (>2) times, if does not exist value f ∈ {1, 2 …} = 3f, theoretical proofs given show otherwise exist. cases schedule, obtained by analytical expressions. without new methods three-wafer proposed improve system productivity comparing an schedule. The applications results demonstrated examples. Wafer residency constraints required Note cannot directly applied both constraints. Nevertheless, schedulablity scheduling analyses conducted based on work.