Method and system for dispatching semiconductor lots to manufacturing equipment for fabrication

A method for selecting a semiconductor lot for a fabrication process, comprising:

• storing process history for a fabrication process, the historic information including lot types previously run by the process;
• receiving and storing process metrics for lot types run by the fabrication process;
• determining a cost of switching for available lot types based on the historic information including process history and process metrics;
• and
• selecting from the available lot types a next lot type to be run by the fabrication process based on the cost of switching.

A system for performance based dispatch of lots in a closed loop dispatch system, comprising:

• one or more processes for performing functions within the closed-loop dispatch system wherein each process has one or more associated models for each function performed by the process, and wherein each model has one or more lot types defining specific details of the associated function;
• a performance metrics database for collecting performance metrics data on the one or more processes;
• a buffer for dynamically storing one or more lots available for dispatch to the one or more processes, each lot having a lot type;
• each process operable to determine a preferred lot type for each model from the lot types represented in the buffer, the determination based on performance metrics data in the performance metrics database;
• each process operable to determine a preferred model from the models associated with the preferred lot types, the determination made based on performance metrics data in the performance metrics database and a cost of switching to a new process;
• and
• an arbitrator for assigning a lot of a preferred lot type and preferred model to each process, the arbitrator further operable to resolve conflicts between processes requesting the same preferred lot type and preferred model when insufficient lots of the selected preferred lot type and preferred model are available in the buffer, the arbitrator resolving conflicts by selecting a number of requesting processes equal to the number of lots of a particular lot type available and assigning the available lots to the selected process.

A system for dispatching lots to be run on a machine, comprising:

• one or more available lots to be processed by a work cell, each lot categorized by lot type, each lot type associated with a model;
• a plurality of machines operable to process the available lots;
• and
• a dispatcher operable to allocate each of the available lots to one of the machines, the dispatcher further operable to receive machine metrics and downstream metrics, the dispatcher further operable to base its allocation of the available lots on the machine metrics, the downstream metrics, and a cost associated with switching from the previous model and lot type to a new model and lot type associated with the allocated lot.