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

[Raevenlord]

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.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[remixedcat]

wellllllp time for the cows to be milked again. the teets dried up but the pumps still work

 

[Wavetrex]

Poor Jensen.
One bad news after another...

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

 

[Vya Domus]

Do 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.

 

[Divide Overflow]

NVIDIA's stock will take even more of a pounding.

 

[birdie]

Poor 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.

 

[ArbitraryAffection]

Oh jeeze. But I am SO GLAD the 7nm production isn't affected.

Ryzen 3000 pls.

 

[dj-electric]

Oh 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?

 

[ArbitraryAffection]

You 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?

 

[dj-electric]

I'm fairly certain AMD is using 14/12nm Global Foundries for the I/O dies, if that's what you meant?

Indeed.

 

[ironwolf]

NVIDIA's stock will take even more of a pounding.

...with no satisfaction.

 

[eidairaman1]

Poor 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

 

[Manu_PT]

Excuses for price increase in 3, 2, 1...

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

NVIDIA's stock will take even more of a pounding.

Both of them.

 

[Patriot]

NVIDIA's stock will take even more of a pounding.

160 down to 136, cool, I forgot to buy in when they crashed last time.

 

[bonehead123]

Well, at least we can be happy they aren't a flash fab, so that the dropping prices can continue downward....

 

[XXL_AI]

Poor 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.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Uuh, that's a new one! Chemical spill.
How come nobody thought at that before?

 

[hat]

Uuh, that's a new one! Chemical spill.
How come nobody thought at that before?

They were too busy putting out the "fires" to be thinking of that!

 

[Basard]

Uuh, that's a new one! Chemical spill.
How come nobody thought at that before?

Can't use em all up at once.

Next up.... Dogs eating the wafers.

 

[voltage]

espionage by a

 

[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.

 

[biffzinker]

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.

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.

 

[hat]

I wonder why those are always a round shape. Wouldn't square make more sense?

 

[biffzinker]

I 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.