An ontology for production control of semiconductor manufacturing processes

In this paper, we describe an ontology for a hierarchically organized production control system in semiconductor manufacturing. The semiconductor manufacturing domain is characterized by reentrant product flows, sequence dependent setup-times, prescribed due-dates, a diverse product mix, a mix of different process types including batch processes and preventive maintenance issues because of complex technological processes. Starting from a hierarchical decomposition of the manufacturing system, we use an agent-based architecture for implementing the resulting production control system. In order to coordinate the autonomous entities of the hierarchy, we suggest an ontology that is appropriate to the hierarchical control approach. We illustrate the use of the suggested ontology.