Cluster tools are automated robotic manufacturing systems containing multiple computer-
controlled process modules. They have been increasingly used for wafer fabrication. This …

We address a robotic flow shop scheduling problem where two part types are processed on
each given set of dedicated machines. A single robot moving on a fixed rail transports one …

Accompanying the unceasing progress of integrated circuit manufacturing technology, the
mainstream production mode of current semiconductor wafer fabrication is featured with …

A dual-gripper robotic cell consists of multiple processing machines and one material
handling robot, which can perform an unloading or a loading task one at a time but can hold …

With the reduction of wafer batch size on account of the diversification and individuation of
consumption demands, increasing importance has been attached to the schedulability and …

Integrated circuit chips are produced on silicon wafers. Robotic cluster tools are widely used
since they provide a reconfigurable and efficient environment for most wafer fabrication …

Cluster tools, which consist of processing modules (PMs) and a transport robot, are used for
wafer fabrication processes in semiconductor manufacturing fabs. Once processing of a …

Manufacturing is the application of labor, tools, machines, chemical and biological
processing, to an original raw material by changing its physical and geometrical …

A kind of facilities for wafer fabrication, cluster tools (CTs) need to close down to an idle state
from time to time because of periodical maintenance and switches from one type of lots to …

Complex multi-cluster tools have been extensively used in semiconductor manufacturing. It
is crucial to increase their productivity by their effective operation. With structural complexity …