Interesting video of the massive TSMC chip plant in Phoenix

[Acyr]

Tiawan Semiconductor's new US plant is impressive. Right next door to Ben Avery Shooting Facility.
Link---> TSMC

 

[ShtrRdy]

That factory is ginormous! The semiconductor wafers are huge too.

 

[Webster]

Tiawan Semiconductor's new US plant is impressive. Right next door to Ben Avery Shooting Facility.
Link---> TSMC

Do they reload ammo at this plant?

 

[jelenko]

The guy in the video said the plant costs $20B!
In the late '80's, a new semi plant cost $1B. In the early '90's it was $3B

And, if you noticed those things traveling overhead, they are automatic wafer handlers. Wafers are not touched by humans throughout the whole process both for efficiency and for precision.

The technology that's used in semi plants is extreme [like using the wave properties of light to get more stuff on the wafers] and each of the technologies is at the top of a pyramid of other technologies.
A current Intel CPU has 10B +/- transistors. They are all connected together on the chip with resistors and capacitors. All of that is error checked for connection and layout errors by a very sophisticated software program.

 

[Dimner]

Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Mikey_P]

In a former life I was a process engineer in the semiconductor industry. Glad to see TSMC setting up operations here in the U.S. I have to believe that their wafer fab technology (in particular ASML high definition lithography - not available to PRC) is one of the reasons why Communist China has their sights set on taking over Taiwan. A link to ASML for anybody who's interested: https://www.asml.com/en/products/euv-lithography-systems

Hoping that TSMC can find enough qualified workers here in the U.S. to staff the AZ facility. It's a "high-tech" industry, without a doubt..

Mike

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Do they reload ammo at this plant?

I’m guessing about as much ammo being produced there as vanilla wafers.

 

[Mike Samer]

Having shot prone quite a bit across the street, I'm amazed they can keep the dust out of the clean rooms!

 

[Fuj]

Good thing it was built here. China wants Taiwan back, and the
first thing to get leveled will be it's chip making capacity, so China
can't have it. Smart strategy......

 

[DiffEQ]

Likely $5B for the shell and $15B for the equipment. It's pretty wild how those plants go up, as I've worked commissioning a relatively small part of many fabs.
The Hi-NA machine is much larger than the EUV ones, and close to $500M in cost.

 

[Rwfish]

42 years in a chip fab starting back in 1980. Costs have definitely skyrocketed with the technology. Last several pieces of equipment I installed were over $2.5M each. That is probably a bargain today….

 

[Fern]

I live near there and can tell you when they were building it was a sky of giant cranes. I think I counted about 30 of them that I could see from my hikes several miles away.
I did hear they were running into water issues cause you know we’re in the desert and all.

 

[Rwfish]

I live near there and can tell you when they were building it was a sky of giant cranes. I think I counted about 30 of them that I could see from my hikes several miles away.
I did hear they were running into water issues cause you know we’re in the desert and all.

Semiconductor fabs are huge water hogs.. I’m sure they have an extensive reclamation plan in use especially for the de-ionized water but in the future I bet it will remain a major headache…

 

[Fuj]

My cousins live in Phoenix, And one worked with the planning and
development board generally about the water reclamation projects.
Hot topic button he said is the Saudi's pulling massive quantities
of water out of the ground water aquifers for there farming enter-
prises. They grow alfalfa here and ship it overseas for there animal
use. They have no water and worked a deal to lease farmland. There
is a current fight to have these leases cancelled if not already......Kind
of a damned if you do, damned if you don't.......The aquifers is just
peanuts until you read about the land and towns subsiding......Had to
look this up for the water resources......

 

[centershot]

Is that another chip plant going up in Queen Creek?

 

[CharlieNC]

Very impressive! Bringing high tech back to the US, it is difficult to comprehend how it left in the first place as the US was the world leader in developing and commercializing this technology. In the mid '80s I worked in the largest silicon wafer plant in the world in rural SC. An onslaught of low priced imports led to a price dumping lawsuit by US producers, but by the time it was ruled as valid the damage was already done as foreign subsidized companies caused bankruptcies here. And it became a widescale destruction of all manufacturing due to nafta and allowing China into the WTO. So now our politicians are here to save the day and undo the damage, at our expense of course.

 

[Acyr]

Is that another chip plant going up in Queen Creek?

Yes, Intel fab

 

[Fern]

My cousins live in Phoenix, And one worked with the planning and
development board generally about the water reclamation projects.
Hot topic button he said is the Saudi's pulling massive quantities
of water out of the ground water aquifers for there farming enter-
prises. They grow alfalfa here and ship it overseas for there animal
use. They have no water and worked a deal to lease farmland. There
is a current fight to have these leases cancelled if not already......Kind
of a damned if you do, damned if you don't.......The aquifers is just
peanuts until you read about the land and towns subsiding......Had to
look this up for the water resources......

Yes they cancelled the leases I think in February. They were pumping millions of gallons of water to grow alfalfa here to ship back. They are not allowed to grow it in their country due to the amount of water it takes to farm it.
There were local farmers whose wells dried up since these leases pumped so much water.
I thought about trying to find an alfalfa field that had squirrels and help them with their pest problem