Logic chip manufacturers like IntelINTC -8.6%, TSMC, and nearby GlobalFoundries in Malta, NY switched to 300 mm wafers long ago because of the need for much higher chip volumes. They all use extensive automation, moving batches of wafers around in FOUPs (front opening unified pods) with overhead transport systems that move them between individual tools on the floor of the fab in the sequence dictated by the chip recipe. But nobody yet had gone back and done the automation work to enable 200 mm. Here the Marcy fab is the pioneer. The Wolfspeed team adapted some of the tools used for 300 mm, such as the overhead transport system, and worked with tool manufacturers to develop automated load ports. They will be using SMIF (for Standard Mechanical Interface) pods that are more or less standard for 200 mm to transport the wafers.
This will be a “lights out” fab, which means even though there will ultimately be around 600 people working at the site, there won’t be any operators in the clean room – just the occasional technicians to maintain the tools and robotics. This should have a positive impact on yield, as humans moving around a cleanroom are a major source of particle contamination and consequent yield loss. It also means that even when there is a major winter snowstorm (that part of upstate New York can receive lots of snow), production can keep humming along.
forbes.com |
