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Mysteries of making computer chips
What job involves acid baths, robots and space suits? Read about the fascinating world of computer chip fabrication, with PC Authority’s exclusive imagery and insights.
Welcome to an Intel computer processor fabrication plant, or “fab”. In rooms like this, robots, electrical engineers and technicians create the world’s most advanced personal computer processors, to exacting standards bordering on perfection. Step inside.
What is a clean room?
Imagine you’re standing in a confined space, with sheer white walls, floor and ceiling. Things look surreal, because everything is illuminated by special orange globes that cast everything in a strange, neon, Andy Warhol sort of colour scheme. Cabinets facing you have a sheer metal surface that acts as a perfect mirror. In the reflection, you see an outlandish space-man, wearing a silvery suit that covers his body from head to toe. That’s you. Every breath echoes in your ears, like Darth Vader, inside your “bunny suit”. You view the world through a transparent plexiglass face shield, and carry an oxygen tank on your belt. The suit’s very important, as a single stray eyelash or pinch of dust could render a batch of processors useless, a mistake costing thousands and probably your job. You touch things only through special gloves, and bunny suit boots enclose your feet. Nearby, acid baths bubble and fizz ominously and a robotic arm busily works, humming as it slides reflective dinner-plate sized wafers of gleaming silicon in and out of the fulminating liquids, etching away copper and nanomaterials to create single track lines that are thinner than a human hair. The equipment and machines around you are so rarefied and expensive that they don’t exist in any other profession or location in the world. They are totally unique, and completely dedicated to this task. Faintly, you can just hear the strains of “Play that funky music” jiving away in the background.
Liz Shipley, Communications Manager for Intel in New Mexico, USA explains what we can see in these images from inside Intel’s “Fab 11” facility, near the town of Rio Rancho.
To view the images whole, click the images.
1. PC Authority: What are these dark-coloured objects, and what is their purpose?
Liz Shipley: The black boxes in the photo are 200 mm “lot boxes” which is how we transfer wafers from one tool to the next.
2. PC Authority: What are these items on the technician's belt, and what is their purpose?
LS: The items on the tech’s belt: The black square object is a pager. The white tubes are part of the air filter system that circulates air into the helmet.
3. PC Authority: What is this device with the coiled cable attached, and what is its purpose?
LS: The coiled cable: This is a scan gun that is used to identify each lot box as they move through the manufacturing line.
4. PC Authority. What is the circular object in the technician's hands? What stage in the process is he likely carrying out?
LS. The circular object in the tech’s hands: This is a cassette which holds the 200 mm wafers in the lot box. (nb: the wafers are like a dinner-plate sized 'pizza' of processors which are all created together.)
5. PC Authority: What are these individual "squares" on the wall? What is their purpose?
LS: The individual squares: These are displays on the tool that communicate the status of that operation.
6. PC Authority: What are these recessed in the bench for? What process takes place there?
LS: The recessed areas: These are baths where the wafers are placed during the etch/clean process. The process is explained in “How Chips are Made” available on Intel’s website at http://www.intel.com/education/makingchips/preparation.htm
7. PC Authority: What is the purpose of this robotic arm? What stage in the process is it carrying out?
LS: The robotic arm: The arm transfers the cassettes holding wafer in and out of the baths during the etch/clean process.
8. PC Authority: What do these green and red lights signify?
LS: The green and red lights: These lights signify the status of the tool. For example, when the tool has completed operation, the light is green
While Fab 11 itself is being scaled down, simultaneously, another Fab on the same site is gearing up for 45nm production of the next-generation Nehalem and Penryn processors.
Finally, we asked the following question of Lynn Nanneman, Lean (manufacturing) Program Leader, Fab 11X.
PC Authority: "What's the best part about working in a chip fabrication facility?"
Lynn Nanneman: "Working in a chip fabrication facility is very interesting work. There is always something new to learn. It is like detective work...solving mysteries and finding solutions to improve the manufacturing process."
Next: Why so secret?
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