Sequencing and scheduling in a three-machine robotic cell

Zahrouni, Wassim; Kamoun, Hichem

doi:10.1080/00207543.2011.596999

Cited by 24 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Agnetis (2000), Agnetis and Pacciarelli (2000), and Brauner et al (2007) considered robotic cell scheduling problems with a single robot, identical part type, and no-wait constraints. Carlier et al (2010) and Zahrouni and Kamoun (2012) also considered cell scheduling problems with blocking and nonzero transportation time and setup time lags. Che and Chu (2009) considered the cyclic scheduling problem of finding the minimal number of robots in a no-wait robotic cell with identical part types with constant processing times, and proposed an algorithm based on enumeration cost.…”

Section: Cluster Tool and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 98%

A real-time scheduling method for the cluster tool with wafer transfer delay

Lim

Park

Lee

et al. 2013

International Journal of Production Research

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In this study, we propose an effective real-time scheduling method based on the timetabling technique for the cluster tool. Instead of considering the no-wait assumption generally adopted in almost all of the previous literature, we take wafer transfer delay into consideration, which implies that a wafer can stay at the current chamber for a certain, limited time before proceeding to the next chamber. In order to improve the total cycle time, an additional pulling procedure to the timetabling is introduced and applied. Numerical examples show that the proposed method gives effective schedules in real time even for practical-sized problems.

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Section: Cluster Tool and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 98%

A real-time scheduling method for the cluster tool with wafer transfer delay

Lim

Park

Lee

et al. 2013

International Journal of Production Research

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show abstract

“…Kharbeche [15] supplied a novel MILP model for the problem above using a separate robot and an exact branch, and a bound algorithm was suggested thereafter. Zahrouni and Kamoun [16] investigated about different part-types robotic cells and introduced a heuristic frame. A prior researcher, Fazel-Zarandi [17], went through a project considering the two-machine robotic cell using a sequence dependent setup to load/unload every part.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bender’s Algorithm of Decomposition Used for the Parallel Machine Problem of Robotic Cell

et al. 2021

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The present research addresses the single transportation robot used to alleviate problems of robotic cell scheduling of the machines. For the purpose of minimizing the make-span, a model of mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) has been suggested. Since the inefficiency exists in NP-hard, a decomposition algorithm posed by Bender was utilized to alleviate the problem in real life situations. The proposed algorithm can be regarded as an efficient attempt to apply optimality Bender’s cuts regarding the problem of parallel machine robotic cell scheduling in order to reach precise resolutions for medium and big sized examples. The numerical analyses have demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed solving approach.

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“…However, when cleaning steps are added to scheduling cluster tools, the swap sequence is no longer optimal because it causes a long waiting time for the robot, which eventually delays the starting time of processing a wafer in a chamber. There have been many studies on scheduling cluster tools or robotised systems assuming cyclic schedules (Sethi, Sidney, and Sriskandarajah 2001;Shin, Sidney, and Sriskandarajah 2001;Lee, Lee, and Shin 2004;Lee, Lee, and Lee 2007;Paek and Lee 2008;Yi et al 2008;Shafiei-Mondared, Salehi-Gilani, and Jenab 2009;Che et al 2010;Lati and Gilad 2010;Yan et al 2010;Chan, Yi , and Ding 2011;Kim, Jung, and Lee 2011;Kujawski and Światek 2011;Zahrouni and Kamoun 2012). Some studies analyse the schedulability issues when time window constraints or activity time variations in processing times occur (Rostami, Hamidzadeh, and Camporese 2001;Rostami and Hamidzadeh 2002;Kim et al 2003;Zhou 2010, 2012;Che et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Scheduling dual-armed cluster tools with cleaning processes

Kim

Lee

et al. 2013

International Journal of Production Research

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Modern cluster tools tend to clean the chambers each time a specified number of wafers have been processed. Such cleaning processes are intended to reduce the quality risk due to the residual chemicals within the chambers. When such cleaning processes are introduced, the conventional scheduling methods for cluster tools, such as the swap sequence for dual-armed cluster tools, are no longer effective. Therefore, we examine a cyclic scheduling problem for a dual-armed cluster tool that performs cleaning processes periodically. We first identify sufficient conditions for which the conventional backward and swap sequences give the minimum cycle time. We then develop a systematic way of generating all feasible robot task sequences, for which the cycle times can be computed. However, the number of feasible robot task sequences increases too fast to be enumerated as the cleaning cycle and the number of process steps increase. To address the complexity problem, we propose two heuristic scheduling strategies and compare them with the conventional scheduling methods and the lower bound of each schedule, respectively, to verify their effectiveness experimentally. IntroductionCluster tools are widely used for most semiconductor fabrication processes, such as lithography, etching, and deposition. Cluster tools consist of several processing modules (PMs), a wafer-handling robot, and loadlocks. They have various architectures depending on the configuration of the PMs and the number of robot arms. Figure 1(a) illustrates a radial cluster tool with four PMs and a dual-armed robot. Each PM has a chamber in which wafers are processed, and PM i indicates the PM corresponding to the i th process step. When a cassette containing identical wafers arrives at the loadlock, the robot unloads a wafer and transports it to the first processing chamber according to its recipe.In a one-unit cyclic schedule, each time the robot completes a predefined sequence, one wafer finishes all processes and returns to the loadlock. For example, when each PM in the tool of Figure 1(a) is filled with a wafer, if the robot unloads a wafer from PM 4 , transports it, and loads it into the loadlock, one wafer completes its processing in the tool. Then, if the robot repeats the same operation to the wafers in PM 3 , PM 2 , PM 1 , and the loadlock in sequence, all PMs again have a new wafer and the robot finishes all tasks in a cycle. When the robot loads or unloads a wafer at a PM, the next robot task should be determined depending on the tool state and the number of available robot arms. For example, if the robot is holding two wafers, it should load one of the two wafers into a PM, and if it has one empty arm, it can unload a wafer as the next task.To improve the quality of the wafers, it is very important to clean the processing chambers periodically because, each time they process wafers, residual chemicals remain on the internal surface of the chamber wall, and the residues can contaminate wafers. Such chamber cleaning is used for all chemical vapour deposi...

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Sequencing and scheduling in a three-machine robotic cell

Cited by 24 publications

References 48 publications

A real-time scheduling method for the cluster tool with wafer transfer delay

A real-time scheduling method for the cluster tool with wafer transfer delay

A Bender’s Algorithm of Decomposition Used for the Parallel Machine Problem of Robotic Cell

Scheduling dual-armed cluster tools with cleaning processes

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