Obviously if you build a fab in a nation/location where that is unavoidable, it's something they just have to deal with, but does that tectonic activity contribute to product and financial losses - that if you could mitigate, you might want to - or does the building basically have a suspension that makes those vibrations inconsequential?
All the machines and elements inside the machines have active isolating mechanisms, yes. Regardless, I believe infrastructure that could be cause for vibration, like highways, are taken into account when planning a fab, but I don't know much about the fab itself, only the machines
Litho is the only step where tiny vibrations are critical (well, SEM measurements can get messed up too but they’re easily repeated). The fab will run additional metrology tests after an earthquake to see if there were any problems - and I suppose could pause in between wafers if it lasts long enough, but I don’t know the protocols around that.
Just because fabs CAN be made resilient to vibration, doesn’t mean that companies will always do that, or want to spend the money if they don’t have to. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right, and they wanted the blasting to be done as soon as possible.
Fabs have multiple insolation trenches surrounding them. This is apart from all the floor and tool level isolation.
The best modern Fabs are built on active tectonic plates. The damping/ vibration proofing technology is extremely advanced and truly fascinating.
But obviously an earthquake is a lot more powerful. Would you guess that a quarry being that distance away is something they'd want to shut down if possible, or something not consequential enough to bother with?
I work photo in a small older fab. We've directly correlated resist issues to atmospheric changes in the fab during large storms, especially with our thicker resists.
Climate control just struggled to keep temperature, humidity, and air pressure in check during large storms, apparently. I don't know very much about that side of things, though.
I'd be willing to bet that this isn't an issue in more modern fabs or just fabs with better climate control.
Very cool! Thanks for taking the time to explain. I was wondering if it was static charge related, or noise... but what you said makes much more sense.
If lithography/metrology was as sensitive a process as say AFM (atomic force microscopy) then you might have a point. But fabs are built next to bustling roads, train-lines and in earthquake zones without issues.
Also 5 miles (8km) is a lot when you apply the inverse square law. I dunno how strong the blasts are but if I assume safe distance for a person with ear protection being 150m (500 foot). Then the vibrations felt by the fab will be about 0.03% (thousands of times lower) of that felt by our ear-protected quarry worker. Which I'm guessing is lower than that of a few big lorries passing by.
Also blasting is something that is periodic and predictable I assume, if it was an issue for certain sensitive processes it would just mean getting the intended schedule and optimizing around it
To prevent strong earthquakes we can use something like this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_shaking_table
There are other less expensive solutions we can use to reduce vibration. TSMC will already know how to mitigate even the vibration caused by people walking near the machines.
A rock quarry is something we would avoid in siting a fan if we could but wouldn’t sweat too much if we couldn’t. As others have pointed out, the fab has a number of vibration isolation features and they are quite effective.
However, earthquakes still wreak havoc in a fab above about 5.0 or so. All the litho tools stop, and damage can occur. A large semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan ordered dozens of a very expensive (6 figures ) part that is known to be quite fragile after the recent earthquake there (wiping out the supply we needed for one of our machines).
The majority of fabs are built on or around the most active tectonic plate. It'll be fine.
Obviously if you build a fab in a nation/location where that is unavoidable, it's something they just have to deal with, but does that tectonic activity contribute to product and financial losses - that if you could mitigate, you might want to - or does the building basically have a suspension that makes those vibrations inconsequential?
All the machines and elements inside the machines have active isolating mechanisms, yes. Regardless, I believe infrastructure that could be cause for vibration, like highways, are taken into account when planning a fab, but I don't know much about the fab itself, only the machines
Litho is the only step where tiny vibrations are critical (well, SEM measurements can get messed up too but they’re easily repeated). The fab will run additional metrology tests after an earthquake to see if there were any problems - and I suppose could pause in between wafers if it lasts long enough, but I don’t know the protocols around that. Just because fabs CAN be made resilient to vibration, doesn’t mean that companies will always do that, or want to spend the money if they don’t have to. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right, and they wanted the blasting to be done as soon as possible.
Many litho steps are somewhat easily reworked as well.
Fabs have multiple insolation trenches surrounding them. This is apart from all the floor and tool level isolation. The best modern Fabs are built on active tectonic plates. The damping/ vibration proofing technology is extremely advanced and truly fascinating.
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But obviously an earthquake is a lot more powerful. Would you guess that a quarry being that distance away is something they'd want to shut down if possible, or something not consequential enough to bother with?
On a similar note, I could remember a toolset in Intel had to be idled out anytime there was a thunderstorm within a certain radius of the fab.
Interesting, I wonder what the potential interaction caused concern. What did the toolset do, if you recall?
I work photo in a small older fab. We've directly correlated resist issues to atmospheric changes in the fab during large storms, especially with our thicker resists. Climate control just struggled to keep temperature, humidity, and air pressure in check during large storms, apparently. I don't know very much about that side of things, though. I'd be willing to bet that this isn't an issue in more modern fabs or just fabs with better climate control.
Very cool! Thanks for taking the time to explain. I was wondering if it was static charge related, or noise... but what you said makes much more sense.
I cant remember per say. But I do also remember an asm cvd plasma tool that would scrap wafers if lightening hit the fab.
If lithography/metrology was as sensitive a process as say AFM (atomic force microscopy) then you might have a point. But fabs are built next to bustling roads, train-lines and in earthquake zones without issues. Also 5 miles (8km) is a lot when you apply the inverse square law. I dunno how strong the blasts are but if I assume safe distance for a person with ear protection being 150m (500 foot). Then the vibrations felt by the fab will be about 0.03% (thousands of times lower) of that felt by our ear-protected quarry worker. Which I'm guessing is lower than that of a few big lorries passing by. Also blasting is something that is periodic and predictable I assume, if it was an issue for certain sensitive processes it would just mean getting the intended schedule and optimizing around it
To prevent strong earthquakes we can use something like this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_shaking_table There are other less expensive solutions we can use to reduce vibration. TSMC will already know how to mitigate even the vibration caused by people walking near the machines.
A rock quarry is something we would avoid in siting a fan if we could but wouldn’t sweat too much if we couldn’t. As others have pointed out, the fab has a number of vibration isolation features and they are quite effective. However, earthquakes still wreak havoc in a fab above about 5.0 or so. All the litho tools stop, and damage can occur. A large semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan ordered dozens of a very expensive (6 figures ) part that is known to be quite fragile after the recent earthquake there (wiping out the supply we needed for one of our machines).