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TSMC holds groundbreaking ceremony for Fab 15
In a renewed effort to add capacity ahead of the curve and return to
historical capital spending patterns, TSMC has held a groundbreaking
ceremony in Taichung’s Central Taiwan Science Park for its latest 300mm
facility, Fab 15. The fab will be comprised of two manufacturing
cleanrooms and an office building having a capacity of over 100,000wspm
when fully ramped. Construction is expected to take approximately 10
months. TSMC said it expected to begin equipment move in for Phase 1 in
June 2011, with volume production of 40nm and 28nm technology products
for customers in the first quarter of 2012. The fully ramped cost of the
facility was said to be US$9.34 billion.
Read more >>TI snags more bargains with purchase of 2 fabs from Spansion Japan
Following-on from its 300mm equipment purchases from bankrupt Qimonda,
Texas Instruments has snagged 2 fabs in Japan from insolvent, Spansion
Japan, including 300mm fab equipment. The financial details were not
disclosed. TI plans to ship the 300mm equipment, which was capable of
65nm production and below to it’s recently opened 300mm RFAB and will
support capacity expansion under TI’s Phase II plan.
Read more >>Toshiba breaks ground on Fab 5 NAND flash facility
Toshiba and SanDisk are once again teaming to operate another 300mm
mega-fab at Toshiba’s Yokkaichi Operations in in Mie Prefecture, Japan
with the start of construction of delayed Fab 5, NAND flash facility.
The fab will be constructed in two phases, with the pace of investment
reflecting market trends. On completion of its second phase, Fab 5 will
be comparable to Fab 4, with a ground area of some 38,000m2. Fab 4 has
an estimated capacity of over 210,000wspm. Construction work is
scheduled for completion in the spring of 2011.
Read more >>Product Briefings
New Product: Applied iSYS fully-integrated abatement and vacuum pumping solution reduces energy use
Product Briefing Outline: Applied Materials has unveiled its ‘Applied iSYS’ platform, the industry’s first fully-integrated abatement and vacuum pumping solution for controlling emissions in the semiconductor fab. Networked with an Applied process tool, the iSYS system can deliver typical annual savings in power, water and gas consumption equivalent to 200MWh of energy or 220,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, compared to currently available configurations. In addition to having environmental benefits, the iSYS system lowers the utility cost for abatement and vacuum pumping on a process tool by more than 20%.
Read more >>New Product: Tiger Optics’ gas phase AMC analyzer measures parts per trillion trace levels
Product Briefing Outline: Tiger Optics has introduced the ‘Tiger-i’ cleanroom analyzer for gas phase airborne molecular contaminants (AMCs). The Tiger-i line employs Tiger Optics’ patented Continuous Wave Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CW-CRDS) technology that is claimed to provide accurate and immediate, calibration-free analysis.
Read more >>Top 5 new products for 2008
One of the equipment suppliers that consistently brings out new products is KLA-Tencor. However, the metrology supplier rarely figures in the most popular rankings in any given year. That has changed in 2008 with its TeraFab tool. Although only released recently, the fifth most popular product was from TEL and Novellus for copper interconnects.
Read more >>White Papers
Edition 38: Chiller plant optimization
By Terrence Morris & Steve Blaine PE, CH2M HILL, Oregon, USA
Outside of the process tools themselves, the chilled water plant is typically the single largest consumer of electrical energy in a semiconductor facility. This load includes not just chillers but also cooling tower fans, primary pumps, secondary pumps and condenser pumps. In order to meet the cooling requirements for any particular heat load, many different combinations of this equipment can be run. However, electricity consumption varies considerably depending on the combination of equipment used and the operating levels of the individual components. Selecting the optimal mix of equipment and operating levels presents a substantial challenge for an automatic control system and plant operators. Typically, no method is available to predict the effect of interactions and variations in load demand and outside air. This makes it challenging, if not impossible, to find an equipment mix that achieves optimal energy use. In response to this challenge, we set out to create a model/tool that would allow operators to automatically determine the optimal equipment mix to satisfy cooling requirements and minimize energy use. This paper describes how this model was created and how it works.
Read more >>