Photos: Inside AMD’s German fab
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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.
