The semiconductor crisis highlighted the vulnerability of supply chains involved in electronic component manufacturing. This work proposes the design of a pilot plant for organic semiconductor film fabrication using industrial engineering tools. The proposal incorporates a line for the deposition of copper-phthalocyanine doped with tetrafluoro-tetracyanoquinodimethane (CuPc:F4-TCNQ) and aluminum-tris(8-hydroxyquinolinate) (Alq3) on rigid substrates of glass coated with indium-tin oxide (ITO-glass), and a line for the deposition of poly(hexylthiophene) doped with TCNQ (P3HT:F4-TCNQ) on flexible substrates of polyethylene-naphthalate coated with indium tin oxide (PEN-ITO). The Systematic Layout Planning methodology was applied to define operations, production capacities, equipment selection, spatial requirements, and functional relationships between areas. Operational times were estimated to simulate the production system. In Arena, three scenarios were evaluated, with the best being the one that includes parallel operations and intermediate inventories. These results supported a dimensional FlexSim simulation under the best-performing layout, yielding an average cycle time of 392.41 min and a production output of 729 units for Alq3 on glass-ITO, 384.70 min and 639 units for CuPc:F4-TCNQ on glass-ITO, and 249.59 min and 180 units for P3HT:F4-TCNQ on PEN-ITO, considering a simulation horizon of 19200 minutes. Additionally, correlation analysis revealed distinct operational patterns among the evaluated lines. In CuPc:F4-TCNQ and Alq3, the strongest associations were concentrated in substrate preparation stages, whereas in the flexible P3HT:F4-TCNQ line, the strongest correlation was observed in the roll-to-roll process. Furthermore, mathematical models with adequate coefficients of determination were developed. This proposal establishes a technical basis for sustainable technological production in Latin America.
Keywords
Organic semiconductors, Pilot plant design, Systematic Layout Planning, Discrete-event simulation.