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I had a tour of AMD's Dresden fab several years ago, it was literally a building inside a building, with the inner building mounted on shock absorbers to isolat

I had a tour of AMD's Dresden fab several years ago, it was literally a building inside a building, with the inner building mounted on shock absorbers to isolate it from vibrations. IIRC the manufacturing chain was entirely automated - silicon in, chips out. That was several generations ago, I'm looking forward to seeing what is required to manufacture with high yield at 7nm!

ximeng 11y ago
Is it possible for general members of the public to arrange tours of microprocessor fabs anywhere?
- StavrosK 11y ago
  With all the clean rooms required, I doubt it, but I don't know.
  - monk_e_boy 11y ago
    We have an ultra-clean room. It has a window.
    - tinco 11y ago
      My university has clean rooms, they have windows, the hallways have windows too so you can peek in from outside. Always great to show to visitors :) (at night they have weirdly colored lighting, pink, purple, so it looks really funky, no idea why)
      - NathanthePie 11y ago
        It's possible that when nobody is working in the room, the lights aid in maintaining a sterile environment. At specific wavelengths (~245-265 nm), (UV) light inactivates quite a few living things. As light is quantized, the purpleish color you see is due to e- stepping down.
        escherplex 11y ago
        My UVC bulbs deployed in a FL home water treatment system pipe out UV in the region of 253.7nm. An ophthalmologist friend pointed out that unfiltered long term exposure to these wavelengths first catalyzes conjunctivitis (pink eye) then conditions go down hill from there. It's suggested that you don't stare directly at sources of this purplish color for any protracted periods.
        kale 11y ago
        Nope. Our bio hoods have a toggle switch. Lights off is in the middle, lights on is one direction, UV sterilization is the other direction. To turn the lights on, you have to turn the UV off.
      - mchannon 11y ago
        Clean rooms that work with semiconductors use light-sensitive photoresists. I've always dealt with yellow windows and yellow covers over the lights, though in theory pink would accomplish the same thing: keeping blue light off the wafers while you're working with them. The concept is not at all dissimilar to old-fashioned darkrooms in photography. Outside light will wash out your image.
      - timelined 11y ago
        Certain parts of the cleanroom will look yellow--these are the spaces where they do lithography with resists that are openly accessible to the air. UV-sensitive resists will chemically crosslink in UV light, so they put on filters on the fluorescent lights (or use special lights) that keeps the wavelength away from the higher-energy blues and towards the lower-energy yellows and reds.
  - userbinator 11y ago
    It's probably more the secrecy of their process that stops such tours from being available. IC manufacturing involves tons of proprietary trade secrets and NDA'd stuff.
    - Keyframe 11y ago
      I'm not sure what secrets you would gather from a tour since everything happens in enclosed machinery.
raverbashing 11y ago
Were you doing the tour as a vendor or a customer?

ximeng 11y ago

Is it possible for general members of the public to arrange tours of microprocessor fabs anywhere?

StavrosK 11y ago
With all the clean rooms required, I doubt it, but I don't know.
- monk_e_boy 11y ago
  We have an ultra-clean room. It has a window.
  - tinco 11y ago
    My university has clean rooms, they have windows, the hallways have windows too so you can peek in from outside. Always great to show to visitors :) (at night they have weirdly colored lighting, pink, purple, so it looks really funky, no idea why)
    - NathanthePie 11y ago
      It's possible that when nobody is working in the room, the lights aid in maintaining a sterile environment. At specific wavelengths (~245-265 nm), (UV) light inactivates quite a few living things. As light is quantized, the purpleish color you see is due to e- stepping down.
      - escherplex 11y ago
        My UVC bulbs deployed in a FL home water treatment system pipe out UV in the region of 253.7nm. An ophthalmologist friend pointed out that unfiltered long term exposure to these wavelengths first catalyzes conjunctivitis (pink eye) then conditions go down hill from there. It's suggested that you don't stare directly at sources of this purplish color for any protracted periods.
        kale 11y ago
        Nope. Our bio hoods have a toggle switch. Lights off is in the middle, lights on is one direction, UV sterilization is the other direction. To turn the lights on, you have to turn the UV off.
    - mchannon 11y ago
      Clean rooms that work with semiconductors use light-sensitive photoresists. I've always dealt with yellow windows and yellow covers over the lights, though in theory pink would accomplish the same thing: keeping blue light off the wafers while you're working with them. The concept is not at all dissimilar to old-fashioned darkrooms in photography. Outside light will wash out your image.
    - timelined 11y ago
      Certain parts of the cleanroom will look yellow--these are the spaces where they do lithography with resists that are openly accessible to the air. UV-sensitive resists will chemically crosslink in UV light, so they put on filters on the fluorescent lights (or use special lights) that keeps the wavelength away from the higher-energy blues and towards the lower-energy yellows and reds.
- userbinator 11y ago
  It's probably more the secrecy of their process that stops such tours from being available. IC manufacturing involves tons of proprietary trade secrets and NDA'd stuff.
  - Keyframe 11y ago
    I'm not sure what secrets you would gather from a tour since everything happens in enclosed machinery.

raverbashing 11y ago

Were you doing the tour as a vendor or a customer?