半導體在製品晶舟置換之設計與實作

Abstract

隨著科技日益月新，電晶體設計與生產亦須隨著進步的腳步邁進。這些電晶體的生產週期在半導體製程中扮演著重要的角色。隨著產品的多元化，半導體廠內的產品不再是以往大量的單一產品，而這些多元化生產往往會相互影響各種產品的生產週期。昂貴的投資伴隨著製造機台折舊的財務壓力，儘管這些廠商已經盡力將產能調配到滿載水位，半導體公司仍然期望各種產品的生產週期能夠有進步的空間。 在12吋半導體晶圓生產過程中，搭載這些晶圓運輸的載具我們稱為晶舟。在繁雜的生產過程□，晶圓會因製程上的需求，必須做晶舟的置換。這些置換晶舟的過程在目前生產架構下，必須花冗長的時間等待置換機台。此篇論文借由國際半導體協會(SEMI)新定義的機台規格，配合生產執行系統(MES)軟體及相關系統的修改，設計與實作了在製晶圓的晶舟置換。此設計不但節省了晶圓等待置換機台的時間，縮短了製造週期，也騰出了更多置換機台的產能供其他產品使用。

Semiconductor manufacturing is an expensive investment. Depreciations of the equipments need years to cover while the growth of information technology accelerates year by year. Although the factories maximize the throughput and their capacity of manufacturing these integrated circuits (IC), cycle time (CT) of producing these ICs has always been a key factor and reduction of CT is always welcome. On the other hand, a semiconductor factory may come up with more and more demands on manufacturing new products and these various combinations of products may affect the CT of a single volume product. Front opening unified pod (FOUP) is the carrier of the 300mm wafers. During the process of manufacturing, the wafers are being exchanged from one FOUP to the other according to the information defined in a process flow. This thesis designs and implements a new strategy called In-Process FOUP Exchange (IPFE) via the concept of a new standard introduced in SEMI organization that would eventually assist to reduce the time of the wafers waiting to be executed by the FOUP exchange equipments and hence reduce the cycle time.