[Hardware] Samsung has a plan to optimize its chip factories: completely do without humans by 2030

[ぁ Ꭷbito-]

 

Samsung engineers are developing a very sophisticated smart sensor system.
Full automation of chip plants will help manufacturers improve yield per wafer In 2022 and 2023 I had the opportunity to visit two semiconductor factories, both owned by Intel. The first of them was Kiryat Gat, in Israel. At that time, the 'Raptor Lake' processor wafers were being manufactured in that plant, which landed in stores a few weeks later. It was a very interesting experience because it allowed me to see the complexity involved in manufacturing wafers, although what impacted me most was witnessing the extreme sophistication of lithography equipment. Just a year later, at the end of August 2023, I visited Intel's semiconductor plants in Penang and Kulim, two exotic and beautiful cities in Malaysia. The purpose of these latter facilities is very different from that of the Kiryat Gat factory. The wafers that come from Israel or Ireland arrive at the Penang and Kulim plants with the purpose of being processed to extract, verify and package each of the chips they contain.

Although, as we have just seen, their mission is different, the facilities that Intel has in Israel, Malaysia, and, by extension, also those in the United States, Costa Rica, Ireland, China or Vietnam, have something in common: they have a surprising level of automation. In fact, one of the things that struck me the most when I visited the Kiryat Gat plant was that the clean room technicians are not directly involved in the manufacturing of the chips; They limit themselves to undertaking the maintenance tasks indicated by the operators in the control and analysis rooms. Samsung plans to take the automation of its chip plants to the extreme
Intel is by no means the only integrated circuit manufacturer that is committed to the maximum possible automation in its cutting-edge plants. I have not had the opportunity to visit the

facilities of TSMC, Samsung, SMIC or GlobalFoundries, but I know that their most modern factories also have a very high level of automation. Even so, as I mentioned a few lines above, within the clean room, which is the room in which the wafers are produced, the technicians in charge of maintenance operations are still present.

 

https://www.xataka.com/empresas-y-economia/samsung-tiene-plan-para-optimizar-sus-fabricas-chips-prescindir-completamente-seres-humanos-2030