Patent ID: 7783374

Claim:
A method of performing a dual damascene procedure using Site-Dependent (S-D) procedures, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of wafers and associated data by a S-D transfer subsystem coupled to a lithography-related subsystem, wherein the associated data includes historical and/or real-time data; determining S-D wafer data for each wafer, wherein the S-D wafer data comprises S-D wafer state data and S-D confidence data; establishing a first Dual Damascene processing sequence, wherein the first Dual Damascene processing sequence comprises a first damascene creation procedure, a first damascene evaluation procedure, a second damascene creation procedure, and a second damascene evaluation procedure; determining a first set of S-D processing wafers to be processed using the first damascene creation procedure, wherein the S-D wafer data, which includes the S-D wafer state data and the S-D confidence data, is used to establish the first set of S-D processing wafers; establishing real-time operational states for a plurality of first S-D processing elements in the lithography-related subsystem; transferring a first number of the first set of S-D processing wafers to a first number of the first S-D processing elements in the lithography-related subsystem using the S-D transfer subsystem in response to the first number of the first S-D processing elements being available; determining whether to delay other S-D wafers in the first set of S-D processing wafers for a first amount of time based on an availability of the first S-D processing elements for use by the other S-D wafers in the first set of S-D processing wafers; and delaying the other S-D wafers in the first set of S-D processing wafers for the first amount of time using the S-D transfer subsystem in response to a determination by the determining that none of the first S-D processing elements are available for use by the other S-D wafers in the first set of S-D processing wafers.