Use case
Expensive evaluations
On some sites every parameter change waits for the machine to settle. One evaluation is costly, so a long trial-and-error search does not fit.
This page names a kind of site, not a delivery. The semiconductor bay is only atmosphere. Public papers on lithography and etch recipe search show that this kind of site does online parameter tuning. They do not mean OptimLight was delivered there.
What the site does today
People pick the next parameter set from experience and spend as few trials as they can. The wait already costs time. After a shift change it is hard to say why that set was chosen.
What the product keeps
The wait step first decides whether the machine is stable and the parameters have taken effect, then opens the measurement window. Current BO fits searches where each evaluation is expensive and the run must spend fewer steps. EA can still be used on the same kind of site when a population search is wanted.
Which steps this uses
- Plan: propose the next action when each step is expensive.
- Act: send the action to the control interface.
- Wait: this step is part of the cost and cannot be skipped.
- Observe: evaluate objectives and constraints in the window you already paid for.