Abstract
Wafer fabrication is one of the most complex and high competence manufacturing. How to fully utilize the machine capacity to meet customer demand is a very important topic. In this paper, we address the capacity allocation problem for photolithography area (CAPPA), which belongs to a capacity requirement planning scheme, with the process window and machine dedication restrictions that arise from an advanced wafer fabrication technology environment. Process window means that a wafer needs to be processed on machines that can satisfy its process capability (process specification). Machine dedication means that once the first critical layer of a wafer lot is processed on a certain machine, the subsequent critical layers of this lot must be processed on the same machine to ensure good quality of final products. We present six modified heuristics and a linear-programming-based heuristic algorithm (LPBHA) to solve the problem efficiently. The performance of the proposed algorithms is tested using real-world CAPPA cases taken from wafer fabrication photolithography area. Computational results show that LPBHA is the most effective one, and with a least average and a least standard deviation of deviation ratio of 0.294 and 0.085% compared to the lower bound of the CAPPA.
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Chung, SH., Huang, CY. & Lee, A.H.I. Heuristic algorithms to solve the capacity allocation problem in photolithography area (CAPPA). OR Spectrum 30, 431–452 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00291-007-0093-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00291-007-0093-4