Patent ID: 7474934

Claim:
A method of enhancing electronic device manufacturing throughput, comprising: determining a number of storage locations corresponding to busy chambers of an electronic device manufacturing tool; based on the number of storage locations corresponding to busy chambers, determining whether the electronic device manufacturing tool may accommodate a substrate; if the electronic device manufacturing tool may accommodate the substrate, receiving the substrate in the electronic device manufacturing tool, wherein determining whether the electronic device manufacturing tool may accommodate the substrate includes determining whether at least one of a plurality of processing chambers of the electronic device manufacturing tool is undergoing maintenance; if at least one of the plurality of processing chambers is undergoing maintenance: determining a remaining maintenance time for each of the plurality of processing chambers undergoing maintenance; and determining the processing chamber having the smallest of the remaining maintenance times; and wherein determining whether the electronic device manufacturing tool may accommodate the substrate further includes: determining whether the smallest of the remaining maintenance times is greater than or equal to a time to transport the substrate from a cassette to the processing chamber of the electronic device manufacturing tool having the smallest of the remaining maintenance times; and if the smallest of the remaining maintenance times is greater than or equal to the time to transport the substrate from the cassette to one of the plurality of processing chambers of the electronic device manufacturing tool, determining the electronic device manufacturing tool may not accommodate the substrate; and if the smallest of the remaining cleaning times is less than the time to transport the substrate from the cassette to one of the plurality of processing chambers of the electronic device manufacturing tool, determining one of the plurality of processing chambers of the electronic device manufacturing tool may accommodate the substrate.