Simulating Energy and Security Interactions in Semiconductor Manufacturing: Insights from the Intel Minifab Model

Abstract

Semiconductor manufacturing, particularly wafer fabrication, is a highly complex system of processes and workflows. Fabrication facilities must deal with re-entrant flows to support multiple types of wafers being produced simultaneously, each with their own deadlines and specifications. The manufacturing process itself depends upon the ability to control and programmatically adjust a variety of environmental conditions. In addition, wafer fabrication consumes large amounts of energy, particularly electricity. Emerging technologies including networked devices may help reduce the energy footprint but can introduce cybersecurity risks. Therefore, this paper presents its modeling and simulation framework to quantify tradeoffs between operational measures of performance, energy consumption, and cybersecurity risks. We augment the Intel Minifab model with an Industrial Control Systems (ICS) reference model based on the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture (PERA) as well as tool-level energy consumption data from a semiconductor manufacturing testbed.