Capacity requirements planning for twin Fabs of wafer fabrication

Abstract

Based on the assumption of infinite capacity, a Capacity Requirements Planning System (CRPS) is developed for twin fabs of wafer fabrication. Several shared equipments exist only in one of the twin fabs linked by an Inter-Fab Material Handling System. CRPS consists of four major modules. WIP-Pulling Module pulls work-in-process (WIP) that is the closest to the end of the process route to meet the Master Production Schedule. Workload Accumulation Module then calculates the expected equipment loading in different time buckets. If WIP cannot meet the Master Production Schedule (MPS) requirement, new wafer lots need to be released. Wafer Release Time Module is used to determine the release time of new lots by evaluating their expected equipment loading at the twin fabs on various time buckets. According to the lot release time, Wafer Start Fab Module can be used to evaluate the expected loading for each of the twin fabs and determine the start fab to optimise the workload balance among these twin fabs on various days. Based on experimental design, simulation results show that CRPS can balance the equipment loading between the twin fabs with shared equipment, on various days, and across various equipments at various levels of demands.

Keywords:

• semiconductor manufacture
• capacity planning
• wafer fabrication
• twin fabs

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Science Council of Taiwan (Contract Nos. NSC 87-2622-E-002-004 and NSC 93-2212-E-033-003) and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation for financially supporting this research.