隨著光電及半導體產業成為台灣的發展重點，面對全球化的競爭，如何提高生產良率，降低成本變成一個相當重要的課題。積極的提升設備的良率、提高整體設備使用率就成為降低生產成本及提昇產品品質的關鍵指標。為此相關廠商無不投注了大量的資源，致力於掌握製程參數及設備使用率的改善，以達成提高生產設備的可靠性及利用率，並進而獲取最大的良率與最低的生產成本。
先進製程控制技術(Advanced Process Control；簡稱APC)便是因應這項需求而提出的解決方案之一。因為APC包含即時機台狀態監控、即時製程工程資料分析、自動錯誤診斷分類及預知保養提醒等功能。可以協助設備相關工程人員，降低因設備異常造成的停機次數；藉由即時製程資料分析而減少不良品或廢品的發生機率，並進而線上調整製程配方確保產品品質，對於產出良率和品質的提升有極大幫助。
由於先進製程控制技術(APC)包含了如此多的功能模組，再加上不同廠商間的生產設備及製程不盡相同，甚至是公司內部的文化及制度的異同，在在都影響到了APC系統的架構和功能性。由於以上因素，使得不同公司間的APC系統都存在著差異，APC的系統業者往往要為不同的公司客戶良身打造屬於他們的先進製程控制技術，也由於這一原因，使得APC系統的建置成本一直居高不下。本研究的主要目的，就是嘗試以代理人系統天生所具備的主動行為、察覺情境、相互溝通及自治能力的特質，有效率的整合不同功能的代理人模組，完成APC作業平台建置及研究，以期能在APC研究的領域開創另一翻新意。

With severed global competition, how to increase yields and reduce costs as well has become an important issue in Taiwan’s photoelectricity and semiconductor industry. The ability to build up good yields and higher equipment utilization and, in the mean time, reduce the down time of equipments becomes critical indexes for lowering the production costs. For this purpose, factories are investing massive resources in tuning good control of parameters of production processes and in improving equipment utilization to gain the best yield, the lowest production costs, and the highest reliability and utilization of equipments.
APC (Advanced Process Control) is one of the solutions proposed in accordance with these demands. APC specifying real-time station condition monitoring, real-time system engineering data analyzing, automatic error diagnosing and classifying, maintenance reminding and etc. It can help engineers to reduce the frequency of system shut down due to unusual conditions and to gain immediate data analysis to decrease rates of unqualified or defective products. With on-line adjustment of process formula, product quality can be further ensured.
With so many functionalities specified and the variety of equipments and processes there can be, the construction of APC systems and their functions can be diverse. It makes APC systems vary a lot in different companies and APC designers have to meet customer's demand to build their own APC. This causes the APC always in higher cost level. The purpose of this research is to efficiently integrate software agents with characteristics such as pro-activity, reactivity, social ability, and autonomy into APC platforms. In addition to fulfill the purpose of APC, this research also expects to create another application domain in APC study.

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