COSAR: commitment-oriented “sense and respond” system for microelectronic manufacturing

Microelectronic manufacturing deals with the efficient coordination of manufacturing processes and owning enterprises along a value chain to provide microelectronic products to customers. Microelectronic manufacturing is an important subject of the supply chain management because of the vital role of the microelectronics industry in the global economy. The systems for microelectronic manufacturing processes are usually linear, rigid, and produce solutions that are far from optimal. This paper presents a commitment-oriented “sense and respond” system, called COSAR, for microelectronic manufacturing. COSAR enables the development of adaptive and configurable manufacturing systems. The concept of commitment is explained in this paper. Furthermore, the concept of “chain of commitments” has been extended to “network of commitments.” Functionality of COSAR can have vertical, horizontal, or mesh decomposition. The foundation, architecture and implementation status of COSAR are discussed.