Substrate Routing Schedules Using Bottleneck Queue Times
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional substrate processing systems face challenges with inconsistent substrate routing and processing times, leading to increased wait times, deadlocks, and decreased throughput, resulting in non-uniform substrate properties and reduced efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A method is introduced to identify bottleneck operations in a substrate processing system, determining a takt time and queue times based on this identification, and using these times to schedule substrate processing, thereby optimizing system throughput and substrate consistency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional substrate processing systems operate without scheduled routing, then system flexibility is maintained, but substrate wait times increase and throughput decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of bottleneck operations and calculates takt times and queue times before substrate processing begins. This advance planning enables optimized substrate routing schedules to be established, reducing wait times and improving throughput by preventing delays rather than reacting to them.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts substrate routing based on identified bottleneck operations and calculated timing parameters. By making the routing schedule adaptive to specific system constraints and operational characteristics, the system optimizes throughput while minimizing substrate wait times across different processing scenarios.
2Productivity
If substrate routing is optimized for speed, then throughput increases, but deadlocks and processing delays occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates feedback by monitoring substrate processing progress and comparing actual timing against the scheduled takt times and queue times. This feedback mechanism enables detection and prevention of deadlocks and delays, maintaining processing consistency while achieving optimized throughput through real-time adjustments.
Solution Approach 2:
By pre-identifying bottleneck operations and calculating optimal timing parameters before processing begins, the system establishes a reliable schedule that prevents deadlocks and processing delays. This advance planning ensures consistent, deadlock-free operation while maintaining high throughput.
3Productivity
If processing speed is increased, then throughput improves, but substrate-to-substrate uniformity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the timing parameters of substrate processing by implementing calculated takt times and queue times based on bottleneck analysis. This parameter optimization enables faster processing while maintaining substrate-to-substrate uniformity by ensuring consistent timing intervals and synchronized routing that prevents variations in processing conditions.
4Productivity
If complex scheduling algorithms are implemented, then throughput and consistency improve, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The scheduling system is segmented into distinct functional modules: bottleneck identification, takt time calculation, queue time determination, and schedule generation. This modular segmentation reduces overall system complexity by making each component independent and manageable, while still achieving improved throughput and consistency through their coordinated operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes determining queue times associated with operations of a sequence recipe. The operations are associated with production of substrates in a substrate processing system. The method further includes generating a schedule based on the queue times. The method further includes transmitting the schedule to a controller of the substrate processing system. The controller is to control the substrate processing system to produce the substrates based on the schedule.