Integrating Process Fundamentals, Facility Design and Production Control in Semiconductor Manufacturing Systems

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9302099 Uzsoy The widely acknowledged importance of the semiconductor industry to the economic well being of the country has led many different disciplines to study problems in this area. Process analysis, design and characterization have been addressed in the electrical, chemical and materials engineering literature. However, this body of research has concentrated on demonstrating the feasibility of producing functional devices in a research environment, in a manner isolated from the production planning and control problems encountered in manufacturing facilities. While production planning and control problems in this industry have been studied by a growing body of researchers, such work has not been used to provide insights into the design of more effective unit processes and has accepted existing unit process and facility designs as given. There is an emerging need for an interdisciplinary effort to develop an integrated framework within which to address the problem of designing and controlling semiconductor manufacturing facilities coupled with a fundamental understanding of materials processing and characterization. The researchers experiences and interactions with industrial partners in the semiconductor industry indicate there is considerable interaction among unit process selection and design, interrelationships between process environments and microelectronic material properties, and production control and facility layout methods. This research is directed towards developing a basic, quantitative understanding of these interactions for thin film deposition and etching processes. Fundamental studies to develop an understanding of the complex dynamics among underlying material processing operations, their interactions with each other, and their environments that will enable integrated, innovative methodologies to be developed for design and control of semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Such knowledge will be used to develop novel, effective, scheduling methodologies for these types of workcenters and to examine how different workcenters may be combined into manufacturing systems that are cost effective and easy to control. The research will require a strong continuous synergy between detailed unit process models and techniques for production system design, control and performance evaluation.