Integrated process and inspection/metrology capacity planning

Discrete event simulation is used to integrate process and inspection/metrology capacity models. This allows fab yield to be estimated for different process and inspection/metrology capacity choices. The importance of this integration is demonstrated through diverse experiments that reveal how excursion detecting inspection/metrology affects critical parameters in process tool capacity models and vice versa. One experiment shows a new method of quantifying the yield benefits of automated material handling systems (AMHS)