Enhancing Utilization and Cycle Times at Clustered Etch Tools through Concurrent Dispatching

Scheduling and dispatching play a critical role in achieving various key factory goals. Plasma etching or dry etching is one of the many key semiconductor manufacturing process steps. In this paper, we will discuss a dispatching approach that was employed at cluster type plasma etching tools. The loading decisions at cluster type plasma etching are fairly challenging due to highly diverse work in progress (WIP) queue and advanced process control (APC) impact on recipe, chamber qualification. The paper will discuss the loading decision challenges at the tools, possible solution approaches, and the chosen solution with results.