GLOBAL DELIVERY OF SEMICONDUCTOR FABRICATION FACILITIES

Abstract

Semiconductors are one of the fastest growing sectors of the world economy and promise to be a key industry in the future. Semiconductors are manufactured in complex facilities that are very costly to build. Semiconductor fabrication facilities are generally delivered under critical time, cost, and quality constraints. The costs of these projects currently run about $2 billion (US) for a 10,000 m 2 semiconductor facility. At current cost growth rates, the cost for a similar facility is expected to increase to$10 billion (US) by the year 2010. The industry has set cost goals for real cost increase per wafer cm 2 of 1 % per year. The industry requirement for the total time to first wafer start for a project in 1997 was 23 months, and is expected to be 13 months by the year 2006. For these expectations to be met, the construction industry must develop better methods of delivering these facilities faster and more efficiently. This paper documents a research program and current work in progress to help clients better deliver these advanced technology facilities globally. First semiconductor fabrication facilities are introduced and described. Next the challenges in delivering these facilities are described from a manufacturing perspective and then from a design, vendo