… processing time variations in a dual-armed cluster tool that has not been studied so far. In spite
of numerous studies on cluster tools… in dual-armed cluster tools that consider parallel PMs …

We analyze the completion time of wafer lots in single-armed cluster tools with parallel
processing modules (PMs) by considering the lot switching operation. To effectively assign wafer …

… 1 illustrates a dual-armed cluster tool and an equipment front end module (EFEM) that has
load ports. The transport robot in an EFEM is not addressed in this paper because the robot …

… cluster tool consists of a number of processing modules (PM), a transport module (TM) and
one or more cassette modules… the wafers between modules in the cluster tool. An important …

… cluster tools each of which integrates multiple single wafer processing modules (PMs) together
into a cluster … A cluster tool consists of several single wafer PMs, a wafer handling robot, …

… processing tools. One of the most important recent innovations is clustering several processing
modules … the tool cycle time, controlling wafer delays within a processing chamber, and …

… Benefits attributed to the use of cluster tools include shorter … on how modules are grouped
together into cluster tools, the … when a cluster tool performs some kind of parallel processing. …

… are two kinds of processing modules in this tool. Before the second step, there is a buffer
where wafers may queue for Processor 2 to become available. If there is room in Processor 2, …

… It consists of several processing modules (PMs), a material … Each cluster tool has its own
equipment front-end module (EFEM) … tools that each wafer visits to be processed. The number of …

… if a cluster tool using the virtual module technology only can be scheduled, then the tool using
… Later we show that some cluster tool can be scheduled with our method, but not by using …