The integrated room layout for a semiconductor facility plan

Layout study is important because layout largely determines the initial investment and production efficiency of a plant as compared with other downstream activities. Especially for semiconductor production, the continued miniaturization of chips requires increased investment and operating cost. While approximately one billion U.S. dollars was necessary for a new semiconductor fab in 1995, manufacturers today need to invest two to three times that for the same type of facility. This research presents a new integrated room layout for a semiconductor fab. Machine tools are laid out in four large rooms. The tools in each room are connected by one overhead hoist transporter/overhead shuttle loop. This layout increases direct inter bay transportation, product mix change flexibility, and routing flexibility and reduces transportation time and initial investment cost. The performance of this new layout is compared with the integrated bay layout that is favorably considered and being used in the literature and industry. This comparison uses data provided by International SEMATECH.