Development of a multi-agent-based distributed simulation platform for semiconductor manufacturing

Since the semiconductor manufacturing system is a large-scale complex system, it is difficult to solve complex problems in semiconductor manufacturing by the mathematical modeling method. This paper presents a multi-agent-based distributed simulation platform to support the extremely complex semiconductor manufacturing analysis. A multi-agent-based distributed simulation platform framework and a multi-agent collaborative control model are proposed to provide a flexible infrastructure and a multi-agent coordination mechanism in distributed environment for semiconductor manufacturing simulation. A multi-agent time synchronization model for distributed simulation is designed to keep events in the correct logical time order in simulation and steps of time synchronization are given. An interaction model and message formats are presented to describe how agents communicate with each other in simulation. The platform development and the design of graphical user interface are also exploited in this paper. Finally, evaluation of this multi-agent-based platform was illustrated with a case study. It indicates that the platform is effective in modeling and simulating the complex semiconductor manufacturing and provides the insights about how to improve the semiconductor manufacturing process with well targeted measures.