Alternative loading and dispatching policies for furnace operations in semiconductor manufacturing: a comparison by simulation

  • Authors:
  • Elif Akçali;Reha Uzsoy;David G. Hiscock;Anne L. Moser;Timothy J. Teyner

  • Affiliations:
  • Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN;Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN;Intersil, Findlay, OH;Intersil, Findlay, OH;Intersil, Findlay, OH

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 32nd conference on Winter simulation
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

In semiconductor manufacturing, furnaces are used for diffusion and deposition operations. A furnace is a batch processing machine, which can simultaneously process a number of lots together as a batch. Whenever a furnace becomes available, scheduling the next batch involves decisions on both which operation to process next (dispatching policy) and how many lots to put into the batch (loading policy). A simulation model of a wafer fabrication facility is used to examine the effects of different loading and dispatching policies for diffusion operations. Results indicate that the loading policy has a significant effect on the average diffusion flow time as well as the overall cycle time of the products, whereas dispatching policy has a less significant effect. We show that the production volume of a product should be considered in setting the minimum number of lots needed to start a batch. We suggest that the diffusion flow time for a low volume product can be reduced by releasing the product in batches or by setting the minimum batch size such that the work-in-process of the product can be moved faster.