WO2003093912A1 - Agent reactive scheduling in an automated manufacturing environment - Google Patents
Agent reactive scheduling in an automated manufacturing environment Download PDFInfo
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- WO2003093912A1 WO2003093912A1 PCT/US2002/041777 US0241777W WO03093912A1 WO 2003093912 A1 WO2003093912 A1 WO 2003093912A1 US 0241777 W US0241777 W US 0241777W WO 03093912 A1 WO03093912 A1 WO 03093912A1
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- G—PHYSICS
- G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
- G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
- G05B19/00—Programme-control systems
- G05B19/02—Programme-control systems electric
- G05B19/418—Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS], computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
- G05B19/41865—Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS], computer integrated manufacturing [CIM] characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
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- G—PHYSICS
- G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
- G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
- G05B19/00—Programme-control systems
- G05B19/02—Programme-control systems electric
- G05B19/418—Total factory control, i.e. centrally controlling a plurality of machines, e.g. direct or distributed numerical control [DNC], flexible manufacturing systems [FMS], integrated manufacturing systems [IMS], computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]
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- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
- G06Q10/06—Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
- G06Q10/063—Operations research, analysis or management
- G06Q10/0631—Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
- G06Q10/06312—Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
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- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
- Y02P90/00—Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
- Y02P90/02—Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]
-
- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
- Y02P90/00—Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
- Y02P90/80—Management or planning
Definitions
- This invention pertains to automated manufacturing environments, and, more particularly, to scheduling in an automated manufacturing environment.
- the fabrication process generally involves processing a number of wafers through a series of fabrication tools. Layers of materials are added to, removed from, and/or treated on a semiconducting substrate during fabrication to create the integrated circuits.
- the fabrication essentially comprises the following four basic operations:
- a semiconductor factory is a complex environment where numerous parts, typically 40,000 wafers or more, and numerous part types, typically 100 part types or more, are simultaneously being manufactured. As each wafer moves through the semiconductor factory (or, "fab"), it may undergo more than 300 processing steps, many of which use the same machines. A large factory may contain approximately 500 computer-controlled machines to perform this wafer processing. Routing, scheduling, and tracking material through the fab is a difficult and complicated task, even with the assistance of a computerized factory control system.
- Efficient management of a facility for manufacturing products such as semiconductor chips requires monitoring various aspects of the manufacturing process. For example, it is typically desirable to track the amount of raw materials on hand, the status of work-in-process and the status and availability of machines and tools at every step in the process. One of the most important decisions is selecting which lot should run on each machine at any given time. Additionally, most machines used in the manufacturing process require scheduling of routine preventative maintenance (“PM”) and equipment qualification (“Qual”) procedures, as well as other diagnostic and reconditioning procedures that must be performed on a regular basis. These procedures should be performed such that they do not impede the manufacturing process itself.
- PM routine preventative maintenance
- Qual equipment qualification
- An automated MES enables a user to view and manipulate, to a limited extent, the status of machines and tools, or “entities,” in a manufacturing environment.
- an MES permits dispatching and tracking of lots or work-in-process through the manufacturing process to enable resources to be managed in the most efficient manner.
- a user inputs requested information regarding work-in- process and entity status. For example, when a user performs a PM on a particular entity, the operator logs the performance of the PM (an "event") into an MES screen to update the information stored in the MES database with respect to the status of that entity. Alternatively, if an entity is to be put down for repair or maintenance, the operator will log this information into the MES database, which then prevents use of the entity until it is subsequently logged back up.
- MES systems are sufficient for tracking lots and machines, such systems suffer several deficiencies, the most obvious of which are their passive nature, lack of advance scheduling and inability to support highly automated factory operations.
- Current MES systems largely depend on manufacturing personnel for monitoring factory state and initiating activities at the correct time. For example, a lot does not begin processing until a wafer fab technician ("WFT”) issues the appropriate MES command. And, prior to processing, a WFT must issue an MES command to retrieve the lot from the automated material handling system (“AMHS”) with sufficient advance planning that the lot is available at the machine when the machine becomes available. If the WFT does not retrieve the lot soon enough, or neglects to initiate processing at the earliest available time, the machine becomes idle and production is adversely impacted.
- WFT wafer fab technician
- AMHS automated material handling system
- WFTs perform many vital functions. For instance, WFTs initiate dispatching, transport, and processing as their attention and time permits. They make scheduling decisions such as whether to run an incomplete batch, as opposed to waiting for additional approaching lots, or performing PM or qualification procedures instead of processing lots. WFTs perform non-value added MES transactions and utilize conventional factory control systems that are passive. In this context, the term "passive" means activities in the control system must be initiated by the WFT, as opposed to being self-starting or self- initiating.
- factory control systems utilized in today's wafer fabs are passive and do not enable a high degree of automation. These systems are very dependent on WFTs and other factory staff to monitor the state of the factory, to continuously react to change, to make rapid logistical decisions, and to initiate and coordinate factory control activity in a timely manner.
- WFTs are agents, providing the active element that is lacking in factory control systems.
- factory effectiveness in the highly competitive semiconductor industry is quite dependent on the availability, productivity, skill level, and consistency of these human agents.
- WFTs must monitor and operate a number of tools located in various bays in a fab. They are forced to multiplex across tools, bays, material handling systems and a variety of factory control systems. As a fab's production ramps and more complex processes are introduced, it becomes more difficult to meet the increased complexity and volume without increasing staff or system capabilities. WFTs visibility of upstream and downstream operations, tool state, work-in-process and resource availability is limited.
- a method comprises detecting an occurrence of a predetermined event in a process flow; notifying a software scheduling agent of the occurrence; and reactively scheduling an action from the software scheduling agent responsive to the detection of the predetermined event.
- Alternative embodiments include a computing system programmed to perform this method and a computer- readable program storage medium encoded with instructions to implement this method.
- the invention includes automated manufacturing environment, comprising a process flow and a computing system. The computing system further includes a plurality of software scheduling agents residing thereon, the software scheduling agents being capable of reactively scheduling appointments for activities in the process flow responsive to a plurality of predetermined events.
- FIG. 1 conceptually depicts a portion of one particular embodiment of a process flow constructed and operated in accordance with the present invention
- FIG. 2 conceptually depicts, in a partial block diagram, selected portions of the hardware and software architectures, respectively, of the computing devices in FIG. 1;
- FIG. 3 conceptually depicts one particular implementation of the apparatus of FIG. 1, i.e., in a portion of a process flow from a semiconductor fabrication facility, and the manner in which it schedules appointments for the consumption of resources;
- FIG.4 conceptually depicts a calendar of booked appointments
- FIG.5 conceptually illustrates three related calendars of booked appointments
- FIG.6A and FIG. 6B conceptually illustrates the changing of booked appointments to take advantage of early start times
- FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B conceptually illustrate two circumstances in which booked appointments are changed to accommodate unexpectedly long durations for preceding booked appointments.
- FIG. 1 conceptually illustrates a portion of one particular embodiment of a process flow 100 constructed and operated in accordance with the present invention.
- the process flow 100 fabricates semiconductor devices.
- the invention may be applied to other types of manufacturing processes.
- the lots 130 of wafers 135 may be more generically referred to as "work pieces.”
- the process tools 115 and any process operations performed thereon need not necessarily be related to the manufacture of semiconductor devices in all embodiments. However, for the sake of clarity and to further an understanding of the invention, the terminology pertaining to semiconductor fabrication is retained in disclosing the invention in the context of the illustrated embodiments.
- the illustrated portion of the process flow 100 includes two stations 105, each station 105 including a computing device 110 communicating with a process tool 115.
- the stations 105 communicate with one another over communications links 120.
- the computing devices 110 and the communications links 120 comprise a portion of a larger computing system, e.g., a network 125.
- the process tools 115 in FIG. 1 are processing lots 130 of wafers 135 that will eventually become integrated circuit devices.
- the process flow 100 also includes portions of a MES and an automated materials handling system ("AMHS"), neither of which is shown for the sake of clarity, and other integrated factory controls.
- the AMHS "handles" the lots 130 and facilitates their transport from one station 105 to another, as well as other locations in the process flow 100.
- the computing devices 110 may be part of a larger computing system 125 by a connection over the communications links 120.
- Exemplary computing systems in such an implementation would include local area networks ("LANs”), wide area networks ("WANs”), system area networks ("SANs”), intranets, or even the Internet.
- the computing system 125 employs a networked client/server architecture, but alternative embodiments may employ a peer-to-peer architecture.
- the computing devices 110 may communicate directly with one another.
- the communications links 120 may be wireless, coaxial cable, optical fiber, or twisted wire pair links, for example.
- the computing system 125, in embodiments employing one, and the communications links 120 will be implementation specific and may be implemented in any suitable manner known to the art.
- the computing system 125 may employ any suitable communications protocol known to the art, e.g., Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol ("TCP IP").
- TCP IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
- FIG. 2 depicts selected portions of the hardware and software architectures of the computing devices 110. Some aspects of the hardware and software architecture (e.g., the individual cards, the basic input/output system ("BIOS"), input/output drivers, etc.) are not shown. These aspects are omitted for the sake of clarity, and so as not to obscure the present invention. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure, however, the software and hardware architectures of the computing devices 110 will include many such routine features.
- BIOS basic input/output system
- the computing device 110 is a workstation, employing a UNIX-based operating system 200, but the invention is not so limited.
- the computing device 110 may be implemented in virtually any type of electronic computing device such as a notebook computer, a desktop computer, a minicomputer, a mainframe computer, or a supercomputer.
- the computing device 110 may even be, in some alternative embodiments, a processor or controller embedded in the process tool 115.
- the invention also is not limited to UNIX-based operating systems.
- Alternative operating systems e.g., WindowsTM-, LinuxTM-, or disk operating system (“DOS”) -based
- DOS disk operating system
- the invention is not limited by the particular implementation of such features in the computing device 110.
- the computing device 110 also includes a processor 205 communicating with storage 210 over a bus system 215.
- the storage 210 typically includes at least a hard disk (not shown) and random access memory (“RAM”) (also not shown).
- the computing device 110 may also, in some embodiments, include removable storage such as an optical disk 230, or a floppy electromagnetic disk 235, or some other form, such as a magnetic tape (not shown) or a zip disk (not shown).
- the computing device 110 includes a monitor 240, keyboard 245, and a mouse 250, which together, along with their associated user interface software 255 comprise a user interface 260.
- the user interface 260 in the illustrated embodiment is a graphical user interface ("GUI”), although this is not necessary to the practice of the invention.
- GUI graphical user interface
- Each computing device 110 includes, in the illustrated embodiment, a software agent 265 residing in the storage 210.
- the software agents 265 may reside in the process flow 100 in places other than the computing devices 110.
- the situs of the software agent 265 is not material to the practice of the invention.
- some computing devices 110 may have multiple software agents 265 residing thereon while other computing devices 110 may not have any.
- Software component(s) 270, 280 of an automated MES, such as WORKSTREAMTM, and of an AMHS, respectively also reside on at least one computing device 110.
- the software components 270, 280 may reside anywhere within the process flow 100.
- the software agents 265 each represent some "manufacturing domain entity," e.g., a lot 130, a process tool 115, a resource, a PM, or a Qual.
- a process tool 115 may be a fabrication tool used to fabricate some portion of the wafers 135, i.e., layer, pattern, dope, or heat treat the wafers 135.
- the process tool 115 may be a metrology tool used to evaluate the performance of various parts of the process flow 100.
- the software agents 265, collectively, are responsible for efficiently scheduling and controlling the lots 130 of wafers 135 through the fabrication process.
- the software agents 265 interface with the software components 270, 280 of the MES and AMHS, respectively, and are integrated with other existing factory control systems (not shown).
- the software agents 265, where appropriate, also interface with the process tools 115 and other equipment through a software implemented "equipment interface" ("El") (not shown).
- El equipment interface
- the manner in which this interface and integration occurs is implementation specific, depending upon the makeup and configuration of the MES, the AMHS, and the other factory control systems.
- the software agents 265 reactively schedule, initiate, and execute activities on behalf of their respective manufacturing domain entities. In the illustrated embodiment, the software agents 265 also proactively schedule activities.
- the software agents 26 schedule ahead for each lot 130 one or more operations on a specific qualified process tool 115, including transports and required resources, as discussed further below. This includes making optimizing decisions such as running an incomplete batch, as opposed to waiting for an approaching lot 130, and scheduling opportunistic preventive maintenance ("PM") procedures or qualification tests ("Quals") to meet specifications.
- the software agents 265 schedule and initiate activities such as lot transport and processing; perform MES transactions; monitor processing and transport; and react to unscheduled activities or deviations from scheduled activities.
- the software agents 265 are configurable in a manner that allows a user to influence their behavior in order to tune the performance of the process flow 100.
- scheduling agents 265 are typed by the manufacturing domain entities they represent. There may be many different types of scheduling agents 265, depending on the implementations.
- the principle types of scheduling agents 265 in the illustrated embodiment, shown in FIG. 3, include:
- LSA Lot Scheduling Agent
- MSA Machine Scheduling Agent
- PMSA PM Scheduling Agent
- RSA Resource Scheduling Agent
- this includes:
- the predetermined event and the reactively scheduled action will be implementation specific. Several exemplary events and reactively scheduled actions are discussed further below.
- the software agents 265 respond to additional software components, not shown, known as “publishers” (or, “notifiers”) and “subscribers.” Agents create listeners which subscribe to one or more notifiers. Notifiers "publish” events to their subscribing listeners when changes occur within the factory. Listeners, in turn, call their subscribing software agent 265. For example, when a MSA is created, the agent will create a machine listener that subscribes to specific machine events. The MSA is interested in receiving any changes that occur to a particular machine. For example, if the availability of the machine changes, the publisher will publish the event to all of its listeners.
- the machine listener will then notify the subscribing MSA about the event.
- the subscribing MSA will then react appropriately. More particularly, when the software agents 265 are created, they create listeners and subscribe to published events by adding the listeners to the event publisher. Listeners enable the software agents 265 to react to events in the process flow 100 in an appropriate manner. Table 1, below, lists the relevant software agents 265 employed in the illustrated embodiment, the listeners they create, and a description of their function. Note that the use of publishers and subscribers via listeners and notifiers in this manner is known to the art, and any suitable technique may be employed.
- FIG. 5 illustrates different appointments (SETUP,, LOT,, MOVE h TOOL,, PM, QUAL, etc.) that are contained within the calendars for each of several agents (the MSA for TOOLi, the LSA for LOT ! , a PMSA, and a RSA).
- FIG. 5 also illustrates corresponding appointments between those calendars.
- the MSA calendar contains a processing appointment LOT, that corresponds with the processing appointment TOOL, on the LSA calendar.
- the appointments themselves may contain a collection of listeners, e.g., the listeners 356, 358 in FIG. 3. Listeners are added to the appointment when other software agents 265 want to be notified that the appointment has changed.
- the lot processing appointment LOT on the MSA calendar 370 contains a listener 356 that notifies the LSA 305 through a notifier 354 when the processing appointment LOT, changes.
- the lot appointment TOOL contains a listener 358 that notifies the MSA 310 through a notifier 352 when it changes.
- the MSA 310 changes the processing appointment LOT, the LSA 305 will be notified of the appointment change and it will modify the appointment TOOL, accordingly.
- listeners enable the software agents 265 to synchronize the corresponding appointments.
- the software agents 265 can schedule reactively to such predetermined events when appropriate and can then keep their calendars updated as changes are instituted by other software agents 265.
- the software agents 265 react to appointment changes, they carefully manipulate the corresponding appointments. In some cases, it would be inappropriate for two software agents 265 to manipulate their respective corresponding appointments at the same time. Thus, a single software agent 265 is responsible for manipulating its respective corresponding appointment, which will then prompt the software agent 265 of the corresponding appointment to manipulate its respective corresponding appointment. For example, in FIG. 5, the LSA 305 contains a move appointment MOVE, followed by the lot processing appointment TOOL,. If the end time for the move appointment MOVE, arrives but the appointment is not finished, an alarm listener notifies the LSA 305.
- the LSA 305 then expands the duration of the move appointment MOVE, by a configurable amount of time, but also shifts the lot processing appointment TOOL, to accommodate the expansion of the move appointment MOVE,.
- the alarm listener for the MSA 310 will notify it that the start of the lot processing appointment TOOL, has arrived. Since the LSA 305 can best determine when the lot LOT] should arrive at the process tool 115, the LSA 305 shifts the start time of the lot processing appointment TOOL, after expanding the move appointment. The MSA 310 will wait for its appointment state change listener to notify it of the shift to the lot processing appointment, will find its counterpart lot processing appointment, and shift it accordingly. In this circumstance, the MSA 310 will ignore its own start time alarm. Although not shown, the lot 130, process tool 115, resources, and PMs and Quals all have corresponding "processing" agents, also not shown, that are notified by the scheduling agents when significant events occur that may require processing.
- FIG. 4 conceptually illustrates a calendar containing information concerning appointments for, e.g., a process tool 115 for a number of lots 130.
- An "appointment” is a time period certain in which the process tool 115 has obligated itself to perform the process operation, and is defined by an Appointment Start Time (“TS”) and an Appointment End Time (“TE”).
- the appointments are booked within "commitment windows” ("CW"), or time windows defined by an Earliest Start Time for processing (“EST') and a Latest Delivery Time (“LDTp").
- the client lot 130 commits to arrive at the process tool 115 no later than the EST and the process tool 115 commits to complete the processing no later than the LDT. Note, however, that the use of commitment windows are not necessary to the practice of the invention.
- the process tool 115 has booked appointments APP, - APP 4 for lots Lot, - Lot 4 , respectively.
- the calendaring information for Lot,-Lot 4 is as follows: Lot,: APP,[t ⁇ o, t 12 ], CW,[t s , t, 4 ] Lot 2 : APP 2 [t, 3 , t, 5 ], CW 2 [t 9 , t, 6 ] Lot 3 : APP 3 [t 5 , t 7 ], CW 3 [t 2 , t culinary] Lot 4 : APP 4 [t 3 , t 4 ], CW 4 [t,, t 6 ]
- several of the commitment windows overlap, but none of the appointments overlap. Appointments may be shifted within their commitment window, so long as they do not overlap other appointments, or may be expanded, shrunk, canceled and rescheduled as is discussed more fully below. However, in some embodiments, parts of the appointments may overlap.
- appointments are proactively booked on calendars, e.g., the calendars 385, 370, maintained by each scheduling agent, e.g., the scheduling agents 305, 310.
- the LSA 305 schedules move appointments for moving the lots 130 to the location of the newly booked processing appointment 375. For instance, referring to FIG. 1 again, assume the lots 130 processing on the first process tool 115 exits from a port 140 and needs to arrive at the port 145 of the second process tool 115 for the scheduled processing appointment 375.
- Each LSA 305 schedules the appointments for the lot 130 to transit between the source and destination locations, e.g., the port 140 of the first process tool 115 and the port 145 of the second process tool 115.
- FIG. 5 conceptually illustrates three related calendars maintained for three different types of entities — a lot 130, a process tool 115, and a preventive maintenance ("PM") — on which different types of appointments are booked.
- PM preventive maintenance
- a calendar for a process tool TOOLi maintained by a MSA for the process tool TOOL including appointments booked for setups (e.g., SETUPi, SETUP 2 ); lot processing appointments (e.g., LOT I ⁇ LOT 2 , LOT 3 ); PMs (e.g., PM); and Quals (e.g., QUAL); • a calendar for a lot LOT] maintained by a LSA for the lot LOT] on which are booked appointments for moves (e.g., MOVE 1? MOVE 2 , MOVE 3 , MOVE 4 , MOVE 5 ) and lot processing appointments (e.g., TOOL,, TOOL 2 ); and
- Still other types of appointments may be booked. For instance, if the process tool TOOL ! goes down, i.e., is no longer available for processing, a "downtime appointment" may be booked on its calendar to represent the expected repair time. Note that each of these appointments in the calendar of FIG. 5 is for an event that, in the first instance, the software agents 265 proactively schedule according to the manufacturing domain entity they represent.
- An appointment e.g., the processing appointment 375 in FIG. 3, exists in one of several "states", or have a certain "status,” at any given time.
- the status may be:
- processing time remaining, wafer count e.g., processing time remaining, wafer count
- complete processing is completed
- canceled booked appointment is removed from a calendar before it enters the processing status
- a tentative appointment remains tentative until it is booked, whereupon it enters the unready status.
- the appointment is unready until the lot 130 arrives at the process tool 115.
- the appointment is then ready until the start time for the appointment arrives.
- the appointment then becomes active (i.e., the appointment commences) until the process tool 115 confirms it has started processing.
- the software agents 265 also reactively schedule events for their respective manufacturing domain entities resulting from developments in the process flow 100.
- reactive scheduling by the software agents 265 effects changes to appointments that were, in the first instance, proactively scheduled.
- the software agents 265 schedule activities in reaction to a machine failure which causes the machine to stop processing and requires a period of downtime in order to repair the machine.
- the software agents 265 usually react to different events that occur within the process flow 100. These events are identified beforehand, i.e., are "predetermined,” so that appropriate activities in reaction to those events can be defined. The appropriate actions will depend on a number of factors including not only the type of manufacturing domain involved, but also the type of event that is involved.
- the predetermined events are categorized, in the illustrated embodiment, as one of three types: appointment state change, a factory state change, or an alarm event.
- Appointment state changes usually occur when a software agent 265, e.g., the scheduling agents 305, 310 change an appointment, e.g., the processing appointment 375.
- a software agent 265 may change the status of the appointment, expand or shrink the appointment, cancel the appointment, shift the appointment, or perform other manipulations to the calendar or appointments on the calendar.
- the appropriate agents 265 react to the change.
- the MSA 310 may expand the scheduled duration of the appointment 375 on its calendar 370 due to the appointment 375 running late.
- the LSA 305 reacts to that change by expanding the corresponding appointment 375 on its calendar 385 to keep the appointments 375 synchronized across the two calendars 370, 385.
- Appointment state changes may include, for instance, appointment cancellations, appointment expansions, appointment shrinkage, appointment aborts, appointments changing status, appointments shifting, and commitment window updates.
- Factory state changes usually occur when the state of the factory, e.g., the process flow 100, changes.
- Factory state change events may originate from the MES 270 (shown in FIG. 2), the AMHS 280 (also shown in FIG. 2), or from the Equipment Interface ("El", not shown) for the process tools 115.
- Factory state changes may include lot due date changes, a lot being put on hold, changing the process or process operation of a lot, a lot's location changing, a carrier arriving at a machine port, etc.
- the software agents 265 react accordingly.
- Exemplary factory state changes might include a downtime occurrence; a machine becoming available; a PM/Qual being detected; a chamber going down; a lot departing a machine; a move completed; and a wafer completed.
- Alarm events occur, in this particular embodiment, when a specific alarm has expired. Agents react when an alarm event is received — for example, when the appointment end time has arrived for a lot appointment. If the machine agent does not receive notification that the appointment has ended, the machine agent will expand the appointment based on a configurable percentage of the appointment's total duration. Once the appointment is expanded, the machine agent will set a new alarm for the new, predicted end time of the appointment.
- An alarm event might be, for instance, an alarm firing for an appointment start time or an alarm firing for an appointment end time.
- the reactive scheduling performed upon the occurrence of any particular event will depend on the nature of the event and, to some degree, upon the particular implementation.
- the reactive scheduling typically includes changing appointments, e.g., the appointment 375 in FIG. 3, previously scheduled and booked.
- Booked processing appointments and PM/Qual appointments may be shifted, expanded, aborted, shrunk, canceled, and re-scheduled.
- Move and setup appointments are modified as needed at the time lot processing appointments are modified.
- these appointment modifications are performed by the LSA 305 or the MSA 310.
- booked processing appointments may be shifted, which may cause booked move appointments to be canceled, aborted, or rescheduled. Appointments are viewed as "beads on a string".
- FIG. 6A This instance is shown in FIG. 6A, wherein the current time t c falls within the commitment window CW, for the next appointment APP,.
- the next appointment APP is then shifted left, or earlier in time, so that its processing can begin immediately.
- the MSA 310 will search for any other booked appointments that may have commitment windows starting at the current time or earlier. If one of these booked appointments can be moved to start immediately without causing cancellation of any other booked appointments, the booked appointment will be moved in a "jump over" fashion and other booked appointments will be shifted as required. This scenario is shown in FIG.
- the LSAs 305 for the affected lots 130 are notified by that their appointments have been changed.
- the difference in start times and end times may also change the appropriateness of scheduled moves. For instance, if a booked appointment is shifted left, the earlier start time means the lot 130 must arrive earlier than may be provided for by the currently scheduled moves. Conversely, a later start time means the lot 130 should move later. In either circumstance, modified moves may be appropriate to achieve the correct arrival time for the lot 130.
- the software agents 265 reactively schedule because the duration of a current appointment, or an appointment immediately preceding it, is longer than expected.
- the LSA 305 and MSA 310 book appointments, they set an "end-time alarm" (not shown) that notifies them when the appointment is scheduled to be completed.
- the scheduling agents 305, 310 are notified and these alarms are canceled.
- the scheduling agents 305, 310 know the appointment did not complete at the scheduled time, and that the appointment needs to be expanded.
- FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B illustrate two such situations.
- the timelines for the appointments in each have been collapsed and the commitment windows are omitted as was the case for the calendars in FIG. 5.
- the move MOVE 3 had a longer duration than was expected, and so the moves MOVE 4 , MOVE 5 and the appointment APP 2 were shifted later in time to accommodate this longer duration.
- the appointment APP 3 took longer than was expected, and so the appointments APP 4 and APP 5 were shifted later in time.
- the illustrated changes necessarily imply that, in both circumstances, the commitment windows for the changed appointments were wide enough to accommodate the changes. Otherwise, some appointments would have to be canceled.
- the reactive scheduling will vary according to the circumstance.
- the following scheduling activities may occur responsive to a predetermined event: • aborting a scheduled appointment in progress;
- the "predetermined events" provoking such reactive scheduling may include, for an appointment state change:
- the predetermined event might be, for example: detection of downtime; a machine becoming available; a PM Qual being detected; a chamber going down or coming up; a change in machine capabilities; a change in machine types; addition of a process; • addition of a process operation; a lot process changed; a lot placed on hold; a lot relesed from hold; a lot priority changed; • a lot due date changed; a lot wafer count changed; a lot process operation changed,and a lot departing from or arriving at a machine.
- the predetermined event might be: • an alarm firing for an appointment start time; and an alarm firing for an appointment end time. Note that these lists are not exhaustive, but illustrative only.
- predetermined events will be implementation-specific, and so may vary among embodiments. Typically, depending on the event provoking the reactive scheduling, these activities will be employed in combination, or in the alternative, conditionally.
- Tables 2-5 list the predetermined events, their type, and their reactive scheduling activities for machine, lot, PM, and resource scheduling agents, respectively, for one particular implementation of the present invention.
- Tables 2, Table 3, and Table 5 refer one or more of load/unload operations and appointments and charge/discharge operations and appointments.
- some process tools 115 perform lot batch process operations in which multiple lots 130 are simultaneously processed in a batch. Some of these process tools 115 use load, charge, discharge and unload steps. For instance, a process tool 115 may first load all the batch participants, i.e., lots 130, from the tool I/O ports (not shown) to the tool internal stocker (also not shown). Usually this type of process tool 115 has multiple I/O ports, and the load/unload operations are also performed in batches.
- the process tool 115 After all the batch participants are loaded, the process tool 115 performs a batch charge operation to move the batch participants from the internal stocker into, e.g., a furnace tube (not shown) before the processing can actually begin. After the process tool 115 completes the batch process operation, it discharges the batch participants, e.g., from the furnace tube back into the internal stocker. Finally when the lots 130 are ready to be moved to the tool I O ports, a sequence of batch unload operations is performed.
- a batch charge operation to move the batch participants from the internal stocker into, e.g., a furnace tube (not shown) before the processing can actually begin.
- the process tool 115 discharges the batch participants, e.g., from the furnace tube back into the internal stocker.
- a sequence of batch unload operations is performed.
- Table 2 also refers to appointments that are "locked.”
- the illustrated embodiment employs an appointment locking mechanism.
- the MSA "locks" the lot processing appointment when the lot 130 starts its final move. Note that locked appointments nevertheless sometimes do need to be shifted. For instance, assume two appointments are booked on the calendar for a particular process tool 115, and the first one is processing while the lot 130 for the second one has started the final move to the process tool 115. The second appointment is locked because it is in its "final" move to the process tool 115.
- the second one must first be shifted to permit the first one to expand.
- the locked second appointment must be shifted even though this is generally undesirable.
- appointments may be "locked" in certain circumstances to prevent them from being shifted or canceled.
- Table 3 refers to "feeder operations.”
- feeder operations In a partially automated fab, only a portion of the process operations may be scheduled and controlled by the software agents 265. Thus, only a subset of the process tools 115 in the fab are under the control of the software agents 265 and the fab is not fully under the control of this system. Those process operations controlled by the software agents 265 are called “control process operations.” Immediately before each control process operation, a sequence of "feeder” operations can be derived from a configurable percentage of the process time of the controlled process operation. Feeder appointments are used in determining the earliest start time for an appointment being scheduled ahead. More particularly, feeder appointments are used when a LSA is scheduling ahead and the time has not yet arrived for scheduling the feeder operation with an actual process tool 115. Feeder appointments are used to represent processing activities for those feeder operations with the duration equal to the cycle time of the respective feeder operations.
- Table 3 also refers to "maxMove" appointments.
- the specific process tool 115 that will perform the final feeder operation is not known until the lot 130 begins processing at the final feeder operation.
- a "maximum move" appointment represents transport activities from the last feeder process tool 115 to a controlled process tool 115.
- the duration of the maximum move appointment is derived by the worst case transport time between the last feeder process tool station 105 and the controlled process tool station 105.
- Table 3 furthermore refers to a "bid request.”
- the process flow 100 employs a protocol for scheduling appointments that begins with a "bid request.”
- the LSA 305 publishes a "request bid” message to a capable MSA 310.
- the MSA 310 submits one or more bids to the LSA 305.
- the LSA 305 selects one from among several such bids, which typically results in one or more "appointments" associated with performing the operation the LSA 305 is seeking for its lot 130 of wafers 135. Note, however, that other protocols may be employed in which there is no "bid request.”
- the bid request is an implementation specific feature that may not be found in all embodiments.
- Event Event Type Reactive Scheduling Activities move appointment after the current lot processing appointment. Otherwise, attempt to schedule the next process operation. If the lot has a move appointment active and the move is to a machine port destination, cancel appointments after the following load appointment (if present) and following lot processing appointment. Otherwise, cancel all appointments after the move appointment and reschedule the current process operation.
- MES cancel appointment after post move
- the lot has a processing appointment active, and it is in a status of processing or near complete, it is allowed to complete. If the next appointment is an unload appointment, all subsequent appointments are cancelled and a move is scheduled Event Event Type Reactive Scheduling Activities after the unload. If the next appointment is a move appointment, it and subsequent appointments are cancelled and another move is scheduled. If there are no subsequent appointments, a move is scheduled after the processing appointment. If the lot appointment is active but not processing or complete, it is shrunk and aborted. If the next appointment is an unload appointment, subsequent appointments are cancelled and a move appointment is scheduled. If the next appointment is a move appointment, it is cancelled and another move appointment is scheduled. If there are no next appointments, a move appointment is scheduled.
- the subsequent lot processing appointment is cancelled.
- the following unload appointment is left and all subsequent appointments cancelled.
- a move appointment is scheduled after the unload appointment (both will later shift earlier in reaction to appointment changes initiated by the RSA). If the load appointment is not processing, it and subsequent appointments are cancelled and a move appointment is scheduled.
- Process Changed Factory State Change If the lot has a processing appointment active, cancel (MES) appointments after either current appointment or following unload appointment (if present). If the appointment is in "near complete" status and the next process operation is not a control operation or there is no next operation in the process, schedule a Event Event Type Reactive Scheduling Activities move appointment after the current lot processing appointment. If the appointment is near complete and the next operation is a control operation, attempt to schedule the next process operation. If the lot has a move appointment active and the move is to a machine port destination, cancel appointments after the following load and unload appointments (if present) and following lot processing appointment. Otherwise, cancel all appointments after the move appointment and reschedule the current process operation.
- MES cancel
- the LSA will remove all non-active appointments.
- the LSA Changed (MES) will then check to see if the new process operation is a control or feeder process operation. If the process operation is a feeder, then the agent will schedule the next process operation. If the process operation is a control and the agent doesn't have an appointment for this process operation, it will schedule this process operation.
- MES LSA Changed
- Wafer Count Factory State Change If the wafer count for a lot decreases, the MSA shrinks lot Decreased (MES) appointments on its calendar that have not yet started. The MSA will try to shrink the appointment by the proper amount. The MSA cancels any unstarted lot appoitment that cannot be shrunk. The LSA subsequently reacts to the appointment changes made by the MSA, depending on the what the changes are.
- MES lot Decreased
- Wafer Count Factory State Change If the wafer count for a lot increases, the MSA expands lot Increased (MES) appointments on its calendar that have not yet started. The MSA will try to expand the appointment by the proper amount. The MSA cancels any unstarted lot appoitment that cannot be expanded. The LSA subsequently reacts to the appointment changes made by the MSA, depending on the what the changes are. ot Terminated Factory State Change The system will cancel all appointments for the lot. (MES) ot Moved In Factory State If the lot moves in to a feeder operation that is not the first
- the invention is implemented using object oriented programming ("OOP") techniques, although the invention may be implemented using techniques that are not object oriented.
- the software agents 265 are implemented as objects and are intelligent, state aware, and are imbued with specific goals for which they autonomously initiate behaviors to achieve. Their behavior is relatively simple and is partially configurable through scripts and properties. The behavior is designed to achieve selected goals such as achieving an assigned lot due date, achieving a predefined level of quality, maximizing machine utilization, and scheduling opportunistic preventive maintenance.
- the helper class is a class of objects to which various objects that are software agents 265 delegate various responsibilities or that provide some useful service in the process flow 100. Publishers and listeners, mentioned above, are also helper class objects.
- the software implemented aspects of the invention are typically encoded on some form of program storage medium or implemented over some type of transmission medium.
- the program storage medium may be magnetic (e.g., a floppy disk or a hard drive) or optical (e.g., a compact disk read only memory, or "CD ROM"), and may be read only or random access.
- the transmission medium may be twisted wire pairs, coaxial cable, optical fiber, or some other suitable transmission medium known to the art.
- the invention is not limited by these aspects of any given implementation. This concludes the detailed description.
- the particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (4)
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JP2004502070A JP2005524165A (en) | 2002-04-30 | 2002-12-20 | Agent-responsive scheduling in an automated manufacturing environment. |
EP02798630A EP1499933A1 (en) | 2002-04-30 | 2002-12-20 | Agent reactive scheduling in an automated manufacturing environment |
KR1020047017526A KR100950796B1 (en) | 2002-04-30 | 2002-12-20 | Agent reactive scheduling in an automated manufacturing environment |
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JP2005524165A (en) | 2005-08-11 |
US20040243266A1 (en) | 2004-12-02 |
TWI284792B (en) | 2007-08-01 |
TW200307861A (en) | 2003-12-16 |
US6968248B1 (en) | 2005-11-22 |
US6907305B2 (en) | 2005-06-14 |
US20050256598A1 (en) | 2005-11-17 |
EP1499933A1 (en) | 2005-01-26 |
CN100351723C (en) | 2007-11-28 |
KR100950796B1 (en) | 2010-04-02 |
KR20040102199A (en) | 2004-12-03 |
CN1625722A (en) | 2005-06-08 |
AU2002364053A1 (en) | 2003-11-17 |
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