Advanced Micro Devices is a triangle of sorts, with manufacturing in Dresden, Germany; Austin, Texas; and — as part of its Spansion flash venture with Fujitsu Ltd. — in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan. As part of International Sematech, AMD also is able to benchmark those three fabs against the Sematech membership.
AMD's Fab 25 in Austin came online in 1994 as the company's first 200-mm fab, and over the years it was often in the news as AMD struggled to keep near the leading edge. In March 2000, Fab 25 made what AMD claims were the first commercial gigahertz processors. By 2001, AMD's microprocessor operation had handed the baton over to Dresden's Fab 30 (AMD names its fabs by counting from the starting year of the company; the 65-nm fab now under construction is named Fab 36).
That left Fab 25 in an awkward position. The AMD-Fujitsu flash ven-ture owned two fabs in Japan, and Fab 25 faced a corporate ultimatum.
"To stay in business, Fab 25 had to support our flash operation. It was convert or die," said John Behnke, director of operations. That conversion started with a 30 percent cut in the work force and a frank statement to the remaining workers that the fab's productivity was well below world class. The fab had to cut its operating costs by 30 percent and boost throughput sharply in order to survive in the cost-is-king memory business.
Equipment suppliers were asked to recognize the different cost model of the memory business and to reduce their tool prices. AMD engineers figured out how to keep track of defects while using fewer metrology tools.
Significantly, the company's advanced process control team is based nearby Fab 25, allowing the team to apply its wizardry to Fab 25 as well as to the Dresden operation. Work in progress was tracked more closely, and real-time dispatching was implemented. Process tools were monitored automatically and fine-tuned to bring tools "back to center."
Fab 25 proves that memory chips can be made cost-effectively in the United States, Behnke argues. By benchmarking itself against the best fabs in the world, by getting everyone in the fab involved in the cost-cutting effort and by applying its advanced process control skills, AMD has turned Fab 25 into a world-class flash memory manufacturer.
And the parking lot is full.
David Lammers covers SoC process equipment. Contact him at dlammers@cmp.com.
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