Achieving Optimal Cycle Time Improvement in a 300-mm Semiconductor Fab Using Dynamic Simulation and Design of Experiments

Advanced 300-mm ASIC/SOC (application-specific integrated circuit/system on a chip) fabrication plants with multiproduct and multiprocess models will require both a high level of flexibility and efficiency to achieve cost-effective manufacturing cycle times. Today, potential solutions to achieve breakthrough manufacturing cycle times are under consideration. Given the dynamic nature of all of the manufacturing phenomena involved in chip fabrication, the increasing manufacturing complexity level, and the huge investment required, the industry has turned to dynamic simulation as the standard tool to use when attempting to provide an accurate analysis of the impact of each strategic or tactical decision being made in the fabrication plant. A design of experiments based on dynamic simulation, using real production equipment performances as input, is the basis of these experiments. This model allows testing of various manufacturing scenarios and measuring their impact on manufacturing cycle time.