 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
173.173.65.163
In Reply to: RE: very interesting posted by pictureguy on August 15, 2012 at 21:59:48
...in TI's RFAB in Richardson, TX. Been working in wafer fabs since '89. Litho, then Thinfilms, then Etch, now back to Thinfilms. Yes, it is crazy what goes into making chips. Even silicon is finite!
Speaking of water usage, fabs use tons of it. The helium supply is also on it's last leg. I read somewhere that there's about 16 years' worth left at current usage rates.
The fact that all resources are finite, and that population growth is and always will be exponential are scary thoughts. Love my boys, but kinda wish I hadn't brought kids into this unpredictable world. That's why I live for the day. No telling what tomorrow has in store.
Keep up the good work. Hopefully our efforts pay off for future generations.
Follow Ups:
Hey BS, we're neighbors! I wrote some data collection software for Dallas Semiconductor back about 15 years ago. Can you say "infant life" and "failure mode"? LOL
Edits: 08/16/12
I was working at National 15 yrs ago. Never saw the Dallas Semi site but knew a couple of people who had come from there. We're in Mckinney. You?
Helium in short supply? Their is an infinite supply only 93,000,000 miles away. If you land at night when it's cool, you can have all you want.
SInce I was a CVD / tFilms / Diffusion guy, I'd forgotten about helium in dry etch. And in cryopumps. We even did a helium implant.....or was that hydrogen? Strip off the electron and you've got either an alpha particle or a simple proton to implant.
The number for population growth used in 'The Limits to Growth was 2.1% annually which means a doubling time of about 32 years...give or take a couple months. That is a 40 year old number which I hope has gone down.
I worked for Western Digital when they owned a fab.....Also, TRW and IR along with Statek, a very unusual fab making quartz (grown, not fused) tuning forks for precision time keeping.
When I worked litho, we had 'contact' aligners....later....'proximity'.....Projection? I saw the first Perkin Elmer.
I worked on an Extrion implante....sr# 86. Also, worked on Varian Sputterers ....3190s. later, 3290s. and Bruce and Thermco furnaces...The Thermco had 8" floppies...if that tells you anything! When I started, 3" wafers were the norm.
Too much is never enough
I worked on the model 100 projection aligners. Had to load them with tweezers. 3"/4" line at the time. We also had 200's and 300's. Litho has come a LONG way.
Currently working 300mm. RFAB is the world's first 300mm analog fab. Funny things about it is that the equipment in RFAB came from my previous job in Richmond, VA. I worked for Qimonda.
Q made DRAM, going bankrupt in early 2009. TI bought the contents of the entire site for $173M. Pennies on the dollar. They took everything except the hardware in the restrooms! Found my old toolbox the other day in a storage area.
A fully automated 300mm facility is a sight to see. 450mm is next!
Post a Followup:
| FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2013, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ Take5 ]
