Musk: "They're getting clean rooms wrong in these modern (chip) fabs"

[Xebec]

I thought this forum might "appreciate":

"“I think they’re getting clean rooms wrong in these modern (chip) fabs. I’m going to make a bet here, that @Tesla will have a 2nm fab, and I can eat a cheeseburger and smoke a cigar in the fab.”"

The interviewer then asks "How are the atoms being placed that they're immune to Cheeseburger grease?"

https://twitter.com/x/status/2008607858200637523

Samsung's 2nm Texas fab should be an interesting place in the future..

 

[MKWVentures]

I thought this forum might "appreciate":

"“I think they’re getting clean rooms wrong in these modern (chip) fabs. I’m going to make a bet here, that @Tesla will have a 2nm fab, and I can eat a cheeseburger and smoke a cigar in the fab.”"

The interviewer then asks "How are the atoms being placed that they're immune to Cheeseburger grease?"

https://twitter.com/x/status/2008607858200637523

CL
Samsung's 2nm Texas fab should be an interesting place in the future..

I wont get into the details on airflow designs. but he is kinda correct. today Wafers are not often exposed to the bay environment. Even when they were, I was in a fab 20 years ago where we tested airflow and the flow made it impossible for someone to hit a wafer with particles from their mouth from 4 feet away. But as I recall, there were other reasons to have low particle air type air in the bay. Not sure how recent Intel, Samsung, TSMC layouts are done.

 

[count]

I think if fabs be significantly more autonomous he might be right.

Even if you have things like air knives separating wafers from people the air coming out of them has to be clean.

So you have to make the system sufficiently autonomous that that the wafers can be contained in a much smaller clean loop.

 

[Fred Chen]

Humidity and temperature are important for the litho bays. So at least keep the smoking and dining rooms separate from those.

 

[hist78]

I wont get into the details on airflow designs. but he is kinda correct. today Wafers are not often exposed to the bay environment. Even when they were, I was in a fab 20 years ago where we tested airflow and the flow made it impossible for someone to hit a wafer with particles from their mouth from 4 feet away. But as I recall, there were other reasons to have low particle air type air in the bay. Not sure how recent Intel, Samsung, TSMC layouts are done.

As in most manufacturing processes, there are many ways to achieve the same results. Ultimately, manufacturers choose the approach that best for cost, technological complexity, operational efficiency, multi-vendor integration, upgradeability, development and implementation time, flexibility, and other factors to fit their specific situations.

Elon might be right for his own needs, but that doesn’t mean other methods are wrong.

 

[KevinK]

As usual, Elon showing how much he knows and where his knowledge falls off the ends of the earth. FOUPs and equipment chambers are sealed most of the time, but not all of the time. And there are plenty of things in a fab that need to stay clean, beyond the wafers - reticles, non in-line measurement equipment, etc. Some of the equipment cannot be completely sealed. And then there's the case where fab equipment needs repair and has to be cracked open.

 

[KevinK]

Humidity and temperature are important for the litho bays.

I remember when projection aligners first hit production (I was an intern process engineer in college at the time). They all had their own “micro environment booths” to keep them cleaner and better temp/humidity controlled than the rest of the 100mm fab. Contact aligners didn’t seem to need the same, though they did need the special lighting.

 

[Daniel Nenni]

I thought this forum might "appreciate":

"“I think they’re getting clean rooms wrong in these modern (chip) fabs. I’m going to make a bet here, that @Tesla will have a 2nm fab, and I can eat a cheeseburger and smoke a cigar in the fab.”"

Samsung's 2nm Texas fab should be an interesting place in the future..

Disruption is Elon's middle name. I wish he would hook-up with Intel Foundry. Come on Lip-Bu! Intel is running laps around Samsung.

 

[adamtopher]

My thinking is that Elon is referring to the more modern move to Ballroom style layouts vs the older Bay style layouts. I could be wrong but when I first started in the semi-industry many fabs had the bay layouts even without the massive automation upgrades in recent decades. The Ballroom style currently used requires high volume of clean room space that is occupied by humans and automation that does seem like overkill.