Methods and apparatus for material control system interface

An apparatus comprising:

• a substrate loading station including a controller;
• and
• a memory including instructions to be executed by the controller and adapted to:
• determine a number of priority lots to be processed;
• reserve a number of carrier storage locations at a substrate loading station of a processing tool, wherein the number of carrier storage locations is based on the number of priority lots;
• make the number of reserved carrier storage locations available;
• and
• transfer priority lots to the reserved carrier storage locations,
• wherein the instructions adapted to determine a number of priority lots to be processed are further adapted to receive a signal representative of the number of priority lots to be processed.

A system comprising:

• a first substrate loading station having a first processing tool and a plurality of carrier storage locations;
• a second substrate loading station having a second processing tool and a plurality of carrier storage locations;
• a transport system for moving carriers between the first and second loading stations;
• and
• a manufacturing execution system operative to:
• determine a number of priority lots to be processed,
• reserve a number of carrier storage locations at each of the first and second substrate loading stations, wherein the number of carrier storage locations is based on the number of priority lots,
• make the number of reserved carrier storage locations available at each of the first and second substrate loading stations, and
• transfer priority lots to the reserved carrier storage locations at the tirst substrate loading station,
• wherein the manufacturing execution system is further operative to receive a signal representative of the number of priority lots to be processed in order to determine the number of priority lots to be processed.