Cluster tools are automated robotic manufacturing systems containing multiple computer-
controlled process modules. They have been increasingly used for wafer fabrication. This …

Cluster tools, which combine several single-wafer processing modules with wafer handling
robots in a closed environment, have been increasingly used for most wafer fabrication …

Because of residency time constraints and activity time variation of cluster tools, it is very
difficult to operate such integrated semiconductor manufacturing equipment. This paper …

With wafer residency time constraints for some wafer fabrication processes, such as low
pressure chemical-vapor deposition, the schedulability and scheduling problems are still …

There are wafer fabrication processes in cluster tools that require wafer revisiting. If a swap
strategy is applied to dual-arm cluster tools handling wafer revisiting, a three-wafer …

This work studies the scheduling problem of a single-arm multicluster tool with a linear
topology and process-bound bottleneck individual tool. The objective is to find a one-wafer …

A treelike hybrid multi-cluster tool is composed of both single-arm and dual-arm cluster tools
with a treelike topology. Scheduling such a tool is challenging. For a hybrid treelike multi …

Optimal cyclic scheduling problems of wafer-residency-time-constrained dual-arm cluster
tools in wafer fabrication are challenging and remain to be fully solved. Existing studies …

For some wafer fabrication processes in cluster tools, eg, atomic layer deposition (ALD),
wafer revisiting is required. Typically, in such processes, wafers need to visit two …

Cluster tools are widely used as semiconductor manufacturing equipment. While throughput
analysis and scheduling of single-cluster tools have been well-studied, research work on …