Monday, January 28th 2019

TSMC Fab 14 B Hit With Chemical Contamination; NVIDIA, MEDIATEK, Huawei, Hisilicon Lines Affected

TSMC's Fab 14 B has been affected with a chemical contamination that has put a considerable number of wafers in suspend mode. Fab 14 B essentially produces 12 and 16 nm, 300 mm wafers for 14 companies, including NVIDIA, MEDIATEK, Huawei and Hisilicon. Reportedly, between 10,000 and 30,000 wafers have been affected (though not scrapped, so there might be salvageable bits and pieces here and there). Of course, every wafer will have to go through a thorough certification process, and the fab will have to go down for the company to purge any remains of these botched chemical compounds.

To put things into perspective, though, Fab 14 B is one of TSMC's Gigafabs, which have a rated monthly output of 100k wafers - so production worth between three and ten days could be affected already, with the additional downtime accruing lost potential fabrication. This event isn't expected to significantly affect availability of any of the products for any of the companies, but these are becoming, at the very least, late inventory - this could well play into some speculative increases in pricing from some players in the market.
Sources: EE Today, via Reddit
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33 Comments on TSMC Fab 14 B Hit With Chemical Contamination; NVIDIA, MEDIATEK, Huawei, Hisilicon Lines Affected

#1
remixedcat
wellllllp time for the cows to be milked again. the teets dried up but the pumps still work
Posted on Reply
#2
Wavetrex
Poor Jensen.
One bad news after another...

Do CEO's still practice suicide (like in movies) when their company goes down in flames?
Posted on Reply
#3
Vya Domus
WavetrexDo CEO's still practice suicide (like in movies) when their company goes down in flames?
Nah, nowadays they file bankruptcy and run with as much cash as they can.
Posted on Reply
#5
birdie
WavetrexPoor Jensen.
One bad news after another...

Do CEO's still practice suicide (like in movies) when their company goes down in flames?
Nowadays CEOs are let go with a golden parachute. The larger the devastation to the company the larger the parachute.
Posted on Reply
#6
ArbitraryAffection
Oh jeeze. But I am SO GLAD the 7nm production isn't affected.

Ryzen 3000 pls.
Posted on Reply
#7
dj-electric
ArbitraryAffectionOh jeeze. But I am SO GLAD the 7nm production isn't affected.

Ryzen 3000 pls.
You know that over half the size of silicone on the sub 12 core chips is a 14nm part....


... right?
Posted on Reply
#8
ArbitraryAffection
dj-electricYou know that over half the size of silicone on the sub 12 core chips is a 14nm part....


... right?
I'm fairly certain AMD is using 14/12nm Global Foundries for the I/O dies, if that's what you meant?
Posted on Reply
#9
dj-electric
ArbitraryAffectionI'm fairly certain AMD is using 14/12nm Global Foundries for the I/O dies, if that's what you meant?
Indeed.
Posted on Reply
#10
ironwolf
Divide OverflowNVIDIA's stock will take even more of a pounding.
...with no satisfaction. o_O
Posted on Reply
#11
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
WavetrexPoor Jensen.
One bad news after another...

Do CEO's still practice suicide (like in movies) when their company goes down in flames?
Ask Foxconn

All I can say is vote with your wallet
Posted on Reply
#12
Manu_PT
Excuses for price increase in 3, 2, 1...
Posted on Reply
#13
DeathtoGnomes
Divide OverflowNVIDIA's stock will take even more of a pounding.
Both of them.
Posted on Reply
#14
Patriot
Divide OverflowNVIDIA's stock will take even more of a pounding.
160 down to 136, cool, I forgot to buy in when they crashed last time.
Posted on Reply
#15
bonehead123
Well, at least we can be happy they aren't a flash fab, so that the dropping prices can continue downward.... :D
Posted on Reply
#16
XXL_AI
WavetrexPoor Jensen.
One bad news after another...

Do CEO's still practice suicide (like in movies) when their company goes down in flames?
Not only that, but also, Nvidia, ignores it's developers. Its been 2 years since they announced a platform, started accepting early access a year ago, its been over a year and hardcore developers still don't have access for it. they are selling unfinished hardware with terrible software.
Posted on Reply
#17
Prima.Vera
Uuh, that's a new one! Chemical spill. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
How come nobody thought at that before? :laugh::laugh::laugh::rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#18
hat
Enthusiast
Prima.VeraUuh, that's a new one! Chemical spill. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
How come nobody thought at that before? :laugh::laugh::laugh::rolleyes:
They were too busy putting out the "fires" to be thinking of that!
Posted on Reply
#19
Basard
Prima.VeraUuh, that's a new one! Chemical spill. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
How come nobody thought at that before? :laugh::laugh::laugh::rolleyes:
Can't use em all up at once.

Next up.... Dogs eating the wafers.
Posted on Reply
#21
Miguel2013
Is this related to contamination of chemicals on human dna and health? What are the forms of contamination? smell or touching? or both!? there has to be a way to return these devices to the store "a recall" Have these devices been sold yet ot put into markets? This is very serious I don't want to get sick or sexually incapable.
Posted on Reply
#22
biffzinker
Miguel2013Is this related to contamination of chemicals on human dna and health? What are the forms of contamination? smell or touching? or both!? there has to be a way to return these devices to the store "a recall" Have these devices been sold yet ot put into markets? This is very serious I don't want to get sick or sexually incapable.
This is what OP is referring to for the chemical contamination. Going to be hard to smell or touch since the bare die will be encapsulated in the processor package.
Posted on Reply
#23
hat
Enthusiast
I wonder why those are always a round shape. Wouldn't square make more sense?
Posted on Reply
#24
biffzinker
hatI wonder why those are always a round shape. Wouldn't square make more sense?
Because the silicon crystal is grown in a cylinder shape.

Top of the crystal cut off.
Posted on Reply
#25
R0H1T
I wonder if someone from Samsung or even Intel is having a chuckle.
Posted on Reply
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