The first tool hook-up in Advanced Micro Devices’ Fab 36 clean room took place in December 2004. The total cost of the chip fabrication plant in Dresden, Germany, is expected to come to $2.5 billion.
Tool hook-up still in progress in March 2005 in AMD’s chip fabrication plant. The Fab 36 equipment includes antivibration systems and chemical deposition machines.
The robot on the ceiling track is carrying a Forward Opening Unified Pod (FOUP), moving wafers from one section of the fab to another.
This will be loaded onto one of the robots that handle wafer distribution and can conduct the task with less disruption than humans.
The government of Saxony is subsidizing part of the cost of the fab. Here, German government officials and AMD execs attend the groundbreaking ceremony in 2003.
Some of the equipment in a fab can cost more than $15 million and require specially designed trucks for delivery.
Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Previously, Bill was an IT manager in the social research and energy industries. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisville, where he has also lectured on computer crime and crime prevention.
