Samsung Faces Factory Contamination

[AleksandarK]

Today, Samsung's foundry division, dedicated to the manufacturing of DRAM chips, is facing challenges from mistakes that happened a few weeks ago. Those mistakes are in the form of contamination of the clean rooms, where all the tools necessary for the manufacturing of DRAM chips on 200 mm wafers got infected, and now Samsung is taking a multi-million dollar loss because the new wafers have to be scrapped.

Clean rooms are essential for the semiconductor manufacturing process, because they keep all the pollutants away from silicon, keeping silicon clean and ready for use. However, Samsung has not managed to keep a clean room for its DRAM manufacturing facility working with 200 mm wafers for 1x nm-class DRAM chips. The tools used for wafer processing have been contaminated and, therefore, the wafers themselves because of their interactions. Samsung has admitted that they have lost around "several billion South Korean won," resulting in millions of US dollars. The re-assuring thing that this will not significantly impact the DRAM market is that production is now going as planned, and the issue is sorted out, so we can hope this doesn't have any big impact on the DRAM prices.


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[eidairaman1]

Anytime i hear this it is just to price hike their stuff.

Why not test the wafers ya know...

 

[Lionheart]

"sniff sniff" Hmmm smells like a future price hike xD

 

[hat]

Price hike comment #3

 

[dj-electric]

Oh no... No no no...

 

[infrared]

They should sell the scrap wafers, I'd love one on my wall!

 

[maxitaxi96]

200nm? Did you mean 200mm wafers? Cause i seriously doubt anyone would buy anything based on a 200nm process nowadays

Always fun to watch the DRAMExchange spot price jump after the biannual "contamination" problem

 

[heky]

Oh come on...every year there is some bullshit just to make the prices rise or stop them from falling further...this shit should be sanctioned with very very high fines!

 

[windwhirl]

Oh come on...every year there is some bullshit just to make the prices rise or stop them from falling further...this shit should be sanctioned with very very high fines!

As irritating as it is, fines would only go straight to prices. Prison would work though.

 

[Dave65]

I smell fish, for FISHY!

 

[Deleted member 67555]

It said 200mm wafers but it did not say which process they are talking about.

 

[holyprof]

Thailand WD factories "floods" led to unseen before HDD price hike, this is the same. I'm happy I bought my new system not long ago and will not need to buy RAM in the next 3-4 years.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

Just another one of those "ahh~ we got (example of a disaster), so we have no choice but to jack up the price while we lay off some workers to keep our pockets lined~" PR crap again.

 

[Bones]

They should sell the scrap wafers, I'd love one on my wall!

Like the one I have right?


Let me shoot you a PM.

 

[infrared]

Like the one I have right?
View attachment 136192

Let me shoot you a PM.

Cheers mate, that looks epic!

 

[Deleted member 67555]

1990's wafers look neater imo

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[DeathtoGnomes]

The re-assuring thing that this will not significantly impact the DRAM market is that production is now going as planned, and the issue is sorted out, so we can hope this doesn't have any big impact on the DRAM prices.

Lets hope this remains true, any major price hikes will suggest this as a pre-planned event and more accusations of price fixing.

 

[Fleurious]

Not gonna lie, i read feces factory contamination.

 

[Totally]

Like the one I have right?
View attachment 136192

Let me shoot you a PM.

I want one

 

[AsRock]

If true i would like to all so hear who got fired for this.

Other wise Surprise ( not ).

Another thought was just in time for Christmas.

 

[Totally]

If true i would like to all so hear who got fired for this.

Other wise Surprise ( not ).

Another thought was just in time for Christmas.

I can imagine an semi-annual pricefixing meeting.

Manufacturer A: Fall holiday season is coming up let's all agree to not go too crazy with price reductions.
Manufacturer B: Yes, I agree. We should limit cuts to 10... no 5%, no just $5.
Samsung: Yeah nah, fam. I'd love to but I have a "contamination" problem and actually have to hike prices a bit.

 

[R-T-B]

The re-assuring thing that this will not significantly impact the DRAM market is that production is now going as planned, and the issue is sorted out, so we can hope this doesn't have any big impact on the DRAM prices.

Ok... Maybe they are hoping we forget about watching price graphs, or maybe this was one of the few honest incidents... the future will show.

Lets hope this remains true, any major price hikes will suggest this as a pre-planned event and more accusations of price fixing.

Yep.

 

[Bones]

I want one

And you have a PM.

Here's the link for anyone else wanting one.
Lawrence's Attic - Est. 2009 | eBay Stores

 

[maxitaxi96]

It said 200mm wafers but it did not say which process they are talking about.

Because it got corrected

Yes they do! It's their 1x nm class of DRAM. That's how Samsung calles their 18nm process which is used to fabricate the Samsung C-Die DDR4 RAM (succesor to B-Die and a good overclocker).