Method and system for determining utilization of process tools in a manufacturing environment based on characteristics of an automated material handling system

1. A method, comprising:

determining for a specified process tool of a manufacturing environment under given process conditions a required carrier exchange time required for exchanging a substrate carrier containing processed substrates for a substrate carrier containing substrates to be processed in said specific process tool;

determining an average delay of delivery of carriers on the basis of said required carrier exchange time and a range of actual carrier exchange times, said range of actual carrier exchange times representing the transport capability within said manufacturing environment; and

determining a transport-related utilization value for said specified process tool on the basis of said average delay.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining an average delay further comprises iteratively determining an updated value for said required carrier exchange time on the basis of a previously determined difference and updating said difference on the basis of said updated value when said previously determined difference does not meet a predefined accuracy criterion.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said required carrier exchange time is determined on the basis of tool characteristics including at least a number of load ports of said specific process tool.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said tool characteristics include a representative cycle time, a number of substrates that can be simultaneously processed and a number of substrates contained in carriers other than a carrier to be exchanged next.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said required carrier exchange time is determined on the basis of a number of substrates for each substrate carrier currently present in said specific process tool.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising determining standard lot size for handling substrates in said manufacturing environment by determining said transport-related utilization value for a plurality of different lot sizes.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said transport capability of said manufacturing environment is substantially provided by an automated material handling system.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising modifying a local transport capacity of said automated material handling system for said specified process tool on the basis of said transport-related utilization value.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising estimating a target process capacity of said specified process tool on the basis of said transport-related utilization value.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said range of actual carrier exchange times is defined by a probabilistic distribution of carrier exchange times.

11. A method, comprising:

defining a transport capability of an automated material handling system of a manufacturing environment by a probabilistic distribution for actual carrier exchange times with a specific process tool;

determining a required carrier exchange time for said specific process tool on the basis of tool-specific characteristics, said specific process tool exchanging carriers containing substrates to be processed and carriers containing substrates processed in said specific process tool with said automated material handling system; and

determining a metric for tool utilization of said specific process tool on the basis of said transport capability and said required carrier exchange time.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising iteratively determining an average delay for carrier exchange using said probabilistic distribution and said required carrier exchange time.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising determining said metric of tool utilization on the basis of a number of load ports of said specific process tool.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising determining said metric of tool utilization for different numbers of substrates contained in said carriers to be exchanged.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein said tool characteristics include a representative cycle time of said specific process tool, a number of substrates that can be simultaneously processed and a number of substrates contained in carriers other than a carrier to be exchanged next.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising modifying a local transport capacity of said automated material handling system for said specified process tool on the basis of said metric of tool utilization.

17. The method of claim 11 , further comprising estimating a target process capacity of said specified process tool on the basis of said metric of tool utilization.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein said specific process tool represents a batch tool and said tool-specific characteristics comprise a batch cycle time, a number of batches simultaneously present in said specific process tool and a number of complete batches contained in carriers other than a carrier to be exchanged next.

19. A tool utilization estimation system, comprising:

an input section configured to receive process information related to a specific process tool in a manufacturing environment including an automated material handling system for exchanging substrate carriers with said specific process tool;

a transport capability estimator connected to said input section and configured to estimate an average delay of carrier exchange in said specific process tool on the basis of said process information and a range of actual carrier exchange times; and

a utilization estimator configured to estimate a utilization loss factor on the basis of said average delay and said process information.

20. The tool utilization estimation system of claim 19 , wherein said range of actual carrier exchange times is represented by a probabilistic distribution.