公开(公告)号：US10101721B2

公开(公告)日：2018-10-16

申请号：US14920026

申请日：2015-10-22

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Fajun Yang ,  Yan Qiao ,  Mengchu Zhou

IPC分类号： G05B19/04 ,  G05B19/41 ,  G05B19/042 ,  G05B19/418

摘要： A method determines an optimized production schedule of a production line including a hybrid multi-cluster tool formed by a plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools interconnected with each other. The method includes determining time for individual operations of a robotic arm and a processing module in the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools; determining robot waiting time of the single-arm tools and dual-arm tools based on the time for individual operations and different connection relationships of the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools; determining whether the optimized production schedule exists using the determined waiting time, wherein the optimized production schedule only exists if the hybrid multi-cluster tool is process-dominant where the robot activity time of the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools is substantially shorter than processing time at the processing module; and determining the optimized production schedule if the optimized production schedule exists.

公开(公告)号：US20170279298A1

公开(公告)日：2017-09-28

申请号：US15078367

申请日：2016-03-23

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Zhiwu Li ,  Zhongyuan Jiang ,  Naiqi Wu ,  Mengchu Zhou

IPC分类号： H02J9/06 ,  G01R31/40

CPC分类号： H02J9/06 ,  G01R31/40 ,  H02J3/28 ,  H02J13/001 ,  H02J2003/007 ,  Y02E60/722 ,  Y02E60/723 ,  Y02E60/76 ,  Y04S10/14 ,  Y04S10/16 ,  Y04S10/40 ,  Y04S40/22

摘要： A power transmission system includes a plurality of electrical substations and a plurality of transmission lines arranged to connect the plurality of electrical substations to form a power transmission network; and a controller system arranged to control a power transmission within the power transmission network. The controller system includes: a detection module arranged to detect an occurrence of a fault in at least one faulty electrical substation of the plurality of electrical substations; and a restoration module arranged to at least temporally maintain an output power of the at least one faulty electrical substation; and wherein at least one of the plurality of electrical substations is operable to facilitate maintaining of the output of the at least one faulty electrical substation upon the detection of the occurrence of the fault.

公开(公告)号：US20170115651A1

公开(公告)日：2017-04-27

申请号：US14920026

申请日：2015-10-22

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Fajun Yang ,  Yan Qiao ,  Mengchu Zhou

IPC分类号： G05B19/042 ,  G05B15/02

CPC分类号： G05B19/0426 ,  G05B19/41865 ,  G05B2219/32291 ,  G05B2219/45031 ,  Y02P90/20 ,  Y10S901/09

摘要： A method determines an optimized production schedule of a production line including a hybrid multi-cluster tool formed by a plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools interconnected with each other. The method includes determining time for individual operations of a robotic arm and a processing module in the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools; determining robot waiting time of the single-arm tools and dual-arm tools based on the time for individual operations and different connection relationships of the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools; determining whether the optimized production schedule exists using the determined waiting time, wherein the optimized production schedule only exists if the hybrid multi-cluster tool is process-dominant where the robot activity time of the plurality of single-arm tools and dual-arm tools is substantially shorter than processing time at the processing module; and determining the optimized production schedule if the optimized production schedule exists.

公开(公告)号：US10001773B2

公开(公告)日：2018-06-19

申请号：US14918577

申请日：2015-10-21

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Qinghua Zhu ,  Yan Qiao ,  Mengchu Zhou

IPC分类号： G05B19/41 ,  G05B19/418

CPC分类号： G05B19/4187 ,  G05B2219/45031 ,  G05B2219/50291 ,  Y02P90/205 ,  Y02P90/26

摘要： The scheduling problem of a multi-cluster tool with a tree topology whose bottleneck tool is process-bound is investigated. A method for scheduling the multi-cluster tool to thereby generate an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule for this multi-cluster tool is provided. A Petri net (PN) model is developed for the multi-cluster tool by explicitly modeling robot waiting times such that a schedule is determined by setting the robot waiting times. Based on the PN model, sufficient and necessary conditions under which a one-wafer cyclic schedule exists are derived and it is shown that an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule can be always found. Then, efficient algorithms are given to find the optimal cycle time and its optimal schedule. Examples are used to demonstrate the scheduling method.

公开(公告)号：US20170083010A1

公开(公告)日：2017-03-23

申请号：US14918564

申请日：2015-10-21

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Qinghua Zhu ,  Mengchu Zhou ,  Yan Qiao

IPC分类号： G05B19/418

CPC分类号： G05B19/41865 ,  G05B2219/34418 ,  G05B2219/45031 ,  G05B2219/50391 ,  Y10S901/02 ,  Y10S901/30

摘要： Recent trends of larger wafer and smaller lot sizes bring cluster tools with frequent lot switches. Practitioners must deal with more transient processes during such switches, including start-up and close-down processes. To obtain higher yield, it is necessary to shorten the duration of transient processes. Much prior effort was poured into the modeling and scheduling for the steady state of cluster tools. In the existing literature, no attention has been turned to optimize the close-down process for single-arm cluster tools with wafer residency constraints. This invention intends to do so by 1) developing a Petri net model to analyze their scheduling properties and 2) proposing Petri net-based methods to solve their close-down optimal scheduling problems under different workloads among their process steps. Industrial examples are used to illustrate the effectiveness and application of the proposed methods.

公开(公告)号：US09333645B1

公开(公告)日：2016-05-10

申请号：US14639960

申请日：2015-03-05

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Mengchu Zhou ,  Chunrong Pan ,  Yan Qiao

IPC分类号： G05D3/12 ,  B25J9/00 ,  G05B19/418 ,  G06F17/50

CPC分类号： B25J9/0087 ,  G05B19/41865 ,  G05B2219/32245 ,  G05B2219/45031 ,  G06F17/5013 ,  H01L21/67742 ,  Y02P90/20 ,  Y10S901/02 ,  Y10S901/41

摘要： A method for scheduling dual-armed cluster tools with wafer revisiting is provided. In order to speed up start-up transient processes, the present invention adopts a program evaluation and review technique for the analysis of start-up transient processes and develops optimization algorithms for their scheduling for dual-arm cluster tools. Then, their complexity is analyzed.

摘要翻译： 提供了一种使用晶片重新访问来调度双机群集工具的方法。 为了加快启动瞬态过程，本发明采用程序评估和审查技术对启动瞬态过程进行分析，并开发了用于双臂集群工具调度的优化算法。 然后分析其复杂性。

公开(公告)号：US10520914B2

公开(公告)日：2019-12-31

申请号：US15268851

申请日：2016-09-19

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Fajun Yang ,  Liping Bai ,  Mengchu Zhou ,  Zhiwu Li

IPC分类号： G05B19/29 ,  G05B19/418

摘要： A system and method of controlling a multi cluster tool system configured to process a semiconductor product includes a plurality of cluster tools arranged adjacent each other, a buffer module positioned between a pair of cluster tools, each cluster tool including a plurality of processing modules and a robot, the method of controlling a multi cluster tool system including receiving a plurality of system parameters from a user interface, wherein the system parameters correspond to one or more processing steps in a system cycle, wherein the system cycle is a cycle of processing the semiconductor product, determining a system schedule for defining the system cycle for processing a semiconductor product, the system schedule providing robot waiting times for each robot of each cluster tool, controlling, via a controller, the operation of each robot of each cluster tool based on the determined schedule.

公开(公告)号：US20180081336A1

公开(公告)日：2018-03-22

申请号：US15268851

申请日：2016-09-19

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Fajun Yang ,  Liping Bai ,  Mengchu Zhou ,  Zhiwu Li

IPC分类号： G05B19/042 ,  G05B19/29

CPC分类号： G05B19/29 ,  G05B19/41815 ,  G05B19/41865 ,  G05B2219/25419 ,  G05B2219/45031 ,  Y02P90/08 ,  Y02P90/20

摘要： A system and method of controlling a multi cluster tool system configured to process a semiconductor product includes a plurality of cluster tools arranged adjacent each other, a buffer module positioned between a pair of cluster tools, each cluster tool including a plurality of processing modules and a robot, the method of controlling a multi cluster tool system including receiving a plurality of system parameters from a user interface, wherein the system parameters correspond to one or more processing steps in a system cycle, wherein the system cycle is a cycle of processing the semiconductor product, determining a system schedule for defining the system cycle for processing a semiconductor product, the system schedule providing robot waiting times for each robot of each cluster tool, controlling, via a controller, the operation of each robot of each cluster tool based on the determined schedule.

公开(公告)号：US20180076064A1

公开(公告)日：2018-03-15

申请号：US15263615

申请日：2016-09-13

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Fajun Yang ,  Yan Qiao ,  Mengchu Zhou ,  Zhiwu Li

IPC分类号： H01L21/67 ,  B25J9/16 ,  H01L21/677

CPC分类号： H01L21/67167 ,  G05B19/41865 ,  G05B2219/32165 ,  G05B2219/45031 ,  H01L21/67745 ,  Y10S901/41

摘要： A system and method of controlling a cluster tool apparatus, wherein the cluster tool includes one or more processing modules and a robot that is configured to move a semiconductor product to and from the one or more processing modules, the cluster tool configured for processing semiconductor products. The method of controlling the cluster tool apparatus to perform a processing cycle includes receiving a plurality of system parameters from a user interface, wherein the system parameters relate to one or more processing steps of the processing cycle, determining a schedule for performing the processing cycle utilizing the one or more processing modules, wherein the schedule being determined based on a semiconductor product residency parameter.

公开(公告)号：US20170083009A1

公开(公告)日：2017-03-23

申请号：US14919720

申请日：2015-10-21

申请人： Macau University of Science and Technology

发明人： Naiqi Wu ,  Fajun Yang ,  Yan Qiao ,  Mengchu Zhou

IPC分类号： G05B19/418

CPC分类号： G05B19/4187 ,  G05B2219/31429 ,  G05B2219/45032 ,  Y02P90/205 ,  Y10S901/02 ,  Y10S901/41

摘要： Since single and dual-arm tools behave differently, it is difficult to coordinate their activities in a hybrid multi-cluster tool that is composed of both single- and dual-arm tools. Aiming at finding an optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule for a treelike hybrid multi-cluster tool whose bottleneck tool is process-bound, the present work extends a resource-oriented Petri net to model such system. By the developed Petri net model, to find a one-wafer cyclic schedule is to determine robot waiting times. By doing so, it is shown that, for any treelike hybrid multi-cluster tool whose bottleneck tool is process-bound, there is always a one-wafer cyclic schedule. Then, computationally efficient algorithms are developed to obtain the minimal cycle time and the optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule. Examples are given to illustrate the developed method.