Monday, January 3rd 2022
ASML, Makers of Semiconductor Fab Machinery, Reports a Fire Incident
ASML, the company that makes semiconductor fab machinery that powers most of today's cutting-edge foundries, has reported a fire incident in one of its plants near Berlin. The company reports that the incident occurred at night, none of its employees are injured, and that the fire is extinguished. The company says that it does not know at this point how the incident affects supplies, since it hasn't undertaken a damage-assessment. The Berlin plant of ASML manufactures components of silicon lithography equipment, including some key mechanical and optical components, such as wafer tables and clamps, reticle chucks and mirror blocks. ASML inherited this plant when it acquired Berliner Glas in 2020.
17 Comments on ASML, Makers of Semiconductor Fab Machinery, Reports a Fire Incident
anyways, in case serious, ASML does not make memory. They supply fabs with silicon making... stuff.
As for the big red button: they are literally everywhere in fabs. Every tool has a big red EMO (Emergency Off) button on them. In fact, they have multiple: if it's a large tool it is required to have an EMO button every 6 feet I believe it is. Why? Safety. There are hundreds if not thousands of massive tools in a modern fab. They all have all kinds of dangerous aspects to them: extremely powerful magnets, asphyxiating gas, toxic substances, radiation, flammable gasses/materials, **ludicrously** high voltages, pinch/crushing hazards etc. Sometimes someone HAS to hit one of these buttons to prevent either serious machine damage, or worse serious bodily harm/death. Sometimes they are bumped accidentally (though they normally have a protective cage around them to prevent this from happening).
A small fire, won't affect the prices by much at all, if you know that one machine goes for $120M, and the damage a fire could have caused is only in the 10s to below $100k at worst...
Some people in here are so easily offended at things that are simply nothing to do with them! Or maybe some here own their own semiconductor business? If so, be careful with the petrol can, and the stop button!
But I agree in general, people here are somewhat easily offended.
and I would not say I was offended. That would imply it bothered me. It's amusing at this point.