International reuse program in a green field Fab

Abstract

As the semiconductor industry becomes increasingly competitive in product pricing, a key factor that will determine if Intel can maintain its dominance in the industry is the cost of green field Fabs. The largest item on the cost Pareto is capital depreciation and the most significant item in reducing it is an efficient reuse program. Until now all tool reuse was done in one site, using older tools. The breakthrough of the Intel Fab 18 tool reuse program is that 100% of the reused tools have been delivered from other sites overseas. Some of the difficulties of being an International green field Fab were different power supply amplitude/frequency, conversion in a remote site, demolition, crating, shipping, etc. The program included over 50 tool types and 181 process tools. It was all managed using a Web based tracking tool. The Web based tool enabled each machine owner to modify and track the status of the tool for each critical project milestone online. The Fab 18 program was very successful, giving cost saving to Intel while controlling risk.