Author name cluster

Shengwei Ding

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2 papers

1 author row

ICRA Conference 2007 Conference Paper

Scheduling Analysis of Cluster Tools with Buffer/Process Modules

Jingang Yi
Shengwei Ding
Dezhen Song
Mike Tao Zhang

Modeling and scheduling of cluster tools are critical to improving the productivity and to enhancing the design of wafer processing flows and equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. In this paper, we extend the decomposition methods in the work of Dwande et al. (2005) for multi-cluster tools with buffer/process modules (BPMs). The computation of the lower-bound cycle time (fundamental period) is presented. Optimality conditions and robot schedules that realize such lower-bound values are then provided using "pull" and "swap" strategies for single-blade and double-blade robots, respectively. The impact of BPMs on throughput and robot schedules is studied. It is found that such an impact depends on the BPM processing time and the cycle times of the decomposed clusters on both sides of BPMs. A chemical vapor deposition (CVD) tool is used as an example of multi-cluster tools to illustrate the proposed method, analysis, and algorithms. The numerical and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithms.

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ICRA Conference 2005 Conference Paper

Steady-State Throughput and Scheduling Analysis of Multi-Cluster Tools for Semiconductor Manufacturing: A Decomposition Approach

Jingang Yi
Shengwei Ding
Dezhen Song

Cluster tools are widely used as semiconductor manufacturing equipment. While throughput analysis and scheduling of single-cluster tools have been well-studied, the corresponding research on multi-cluster tools is still at the early stage. This paper analyzes steady-state throughput and scheduling of multi-cluster tools. A decomposition method is utilized to reduce a multi-cluster tool problem to multiple single-cluster tool problems. Existing research on the throughput and scheduling results is then applied to each single-cluster tool. For an M-cluster tool, an O(M) throughput calculation and robot scheduling algorithm is presented. A chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) polisher is used as an example of the multi-cluster cluster tools to illustrate the proposed decomposition method and algorithms.

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