Editor's Page

The fab's beating heart

What are the most important components in a fab? They're not the multimillion-dollar process tools or the various ultrapure material delivery systems, not even the precious silicon wafers waiting to be turned from sand into microcircuit gold. The most essential components are the men and women who carry out the manufacturing, without whose efforts all that industrial alchemy would be impossible to achieve. Massive capital investment and a host of technological wonders cannot overcome the obstacle of inadequately trained employees.

Many companies take seriously the task of educating their workforce. One of those companies is Sony Semiconductor, whose Fab 1A facility in San Antonio I toured last fall. Managers there have developed a successful employee training program, the "Visualized Process Flow" course. It focuses on the basic theories of electronic devices, step-by-step process flow (including videos on how the chips are built), and visualization of the progress of the trainees. With each successive technological generation, the class is updated and taught again to employees. During my visit I sat in on part of a course on the new 0.35-µm processes, which was attended by nearly 20 engineers (including two from Sony Japan).

Kiyoshi Mori, contamination-free manufacturing manager at the plant and cocreator of the course, places a strong emphasis on wafer-handling training. He has dozens of charts showing the quantitative correlation between proper handling and high yields. As he explains, one scratched or broken wafer can shower particles throughout a group of wafers, sometimes requiring the scrapping of an entire lot. Since employees already have a solid grounding in both the theory and practice of what they're involved in, Mori's pitch on the connection between handling and successful outcomes is effective. This sense of enfranchisement, of being aware of one's place in the big picture and the importance of one's efforts, is at the heart of the learning process.

A room has been set aside where newly hired and veteran operators alike can sharpen their wafer-handling skills. The company insists on 20 hours of practice for the rookies before they can enter the cleanroom, with refresher courses required of experienced technicians. As I watched her expertly transfer 6-inch wafers with a vacuum wand from one cassette to another, Vicki Dixon, a Sony employee for more than seven years, said, "Having refreshers really helps you remember that, hey, this is what we're here for."

Mori's description of Sony's on-site training program, this month's Management Strategies feature, begins on page 79 [not on Web site yet]. MICRO looks forward to presenting this kind of useful and timely personnel information in future issues.

Tom Cheyney

Editor

tom.cheyney@cancom.com

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