ALLOCATION OF CHIPS TO WAFERS IN A PRODUCTION PROBLEM OF SEMICONDUCTOR KITS

The problem of maximizing the production of good sets of semiconductor chips under random yield is reexamined in this paper. (A set of semic onductor chips is called a semiconductor kit.) This problem has been c onsidered by Avram and Wein (1992) and Singh et al. (1988). To solve t his problem we show that under certain combinations of assumptions the production process can be replaced by a black box The use of the blac k box model considerably simplifies the analysis and reduces the simul ation effort required for carrying out parametric analysis of the prop osed solution procedure. The model includes that of Avram and Wein, an d we ext:end their results to more general settings and strengthen the ir conclusions. Using the black box model, it is shown that the strate gy of placing different types of chips on a single wafer gives larger yield of kits in a stochastic sense than the traditional method of pla cing single types of chips on a wafer. We compare the production of ki ts under different chip design and lot release policies and also carry out a parametric analysis with respect to factors such as set proport ions and yield.