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ASML make the tool, TSMC make the process. The fab itself, for example, you can't just setup a Twinscan in your garage. Even the floors are marvels of engineer
by itishappy 2y ago
ASML make the tool, TSMC make the process.
The fab itself, for example, you can't just setup a Twinscan in your garage. Even the floors are marvels of engineering. Culture is another subtle but huge factor. When chasing nanometers the fab becomes sensitive to things like deodorant and cigarette smoke. You can of course mitigate these issues, but having an aligned and motivated work force makes it easier.
- invalidname 2y agoForgive my ignorant question, but if it's that sensitive why not automate it with robotics and vacuum seal it? I understand that this is a sensitive process but so is surgery which robots are able to do with remote control.
- itishappy 2y agoThey do their best but they can't seal away everything. Raw materials have to enter, chips and waste come out, and the whole thing comes apart for maintenance. Manufacturing is a game of yields and margins. When you have thousands of operations and inputs, small changes have big effects. TSMC and Intel both have access to the same machines, it's what they're doing with them that differs.
- ok_computer 2y agoYou have no idea how many steps, robotics, offsets, material feeds, alignments, tool setup, recipe fixing, materials troubleshooting go into a fab. These are all to run automated processes. You underestimate how difficult it is to sink heat in a vacuum and the cost of scaling volume and keeping pressure to a low exponent (high vacuum). Robot surgery is tolerant of a much greater length scale of defect than a modern IC chip and is orders of magnitude fewer process steps. Try to watch a youtube video or something but even then you won’t see the full picture. There are so many layers and the wafer passes through different flavors of the same processes over and over.