Comprehensive cycle time reduction program at AMD´s fab25

Manufacturing cycle time at AMD´s Fab25 Austin, Texas facility has improved from the bottom third to the top of Sematech´s cycle time per mask layer metric list. Steady improvement in cycle time performance has been attained in the midst of a steep ramp from 0.25 μm to 0.18 μm technology. This paper explains the fundamental changes that were made to accomplish these improvements and evaluate their impact upon Fab25´s cycle time reduction efforts. Focus areas of interest are: philosophy and behavior, modeling, dispatching, planning, and operations