Method and apparatus for selecting tools in manufacturing scheduling
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsPai-Cheng Huang, Ming-Feng Ou
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for manufacturing scheduling for a fabrication system. The fabrication contains a plurality of tool groups, and each of which has at least one tool. The system contains an input/output device, a processor, and a storage device. The processor calculates the tool group count of each tool, and assigns a preference index to each tool accordingly, then derives a preference-based manufacturing schedule.
Claims21
A system for manufacturing scheduling, comprising:
- an I/O device for receiving a list of component tools in a pre-defined tool group, which comprises at least one tool for processing an object, wherein the list contains records of component tools in the tool group;
- a processor for calculating the number of tool groups to which each tool belongs, assigning a preference index to each tool accordingly, and generating a preference-based manufacturing schedule of the tool accordingly;
- and
- a storage device for storing the list of component tools in the tool group, the tool group count and preference index of each tool, and the manufacturing schedule.
A method of manufacturing, comprising:
- providing a plurality of tool groups, wherein each tool group has at least one tool for processing an object;
- calculating the tool group count of each tool, wherein the tool group count is the number of tool groups to which the tool belongs;
- assigning a preference index to each tool according to the tool group count;
- selecting one of the component tools from the tool group according to the assigned preference index of each tool;
- and
- processing the object using the selected tool.
A computer readable storage medium for storing a computer program providing a method of manufacturing scheduling, the method comprising:
- receiving a plurality of tool groups, wherein each tool group has at least one tool for processing an object;
- calculating the tool group count of each tool, wherein the tool group count is the number of tool groups to which the tool belongs;
- assigning a preference index to each tool according to the tool group count;
- selecting one of the component tools from the tool group according to the assigned preference index of each tool;
- generating a manufacturing schedule for processing the object according to the assigned preference index of each tool.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.