Educating cleanroom-facility construction managers
10/01/1998
Educating cleanroom-facility construction managers
Allan D. Chasey, Del E. Webb School of Construction, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
Partnering between industry and academia provides a unique educational opportunity. In particular, this approach has proven valuable for educating professionals involved with design and construction, organization, management, and delivery of modern advanced technology wafer fabrication facilities and related supporting infrastructure in a timely and cost-effective manner. Such a program was developed at the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University to teach fundamentals of design, construction, and project management for advanced technology, controlled-environment manufacturing facilities.
The growing need for advanced technology production facilities is most notable in the microelectronics manufacturing industry. The steady increase in facilities over the past few years can be seen by the number of new and remodeled manufacturing plants for semiconductors around the world.
The actual number of semiconductor manufacturing facilities planned or under construction is relatively dynamic and fluctuates in the short term due to the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry. In the long term, however, we will likely look back at the five year period between 1995, when we started our unique education program, and 2000 and see that the industry added 150 or more new clean manufacturing facilities.
The shear magnitude of this number has presented the construction industry with an ongoing challenge to provide all types of construction workers, and especially knowledgeable personnel capable of managing the construction of these complex, fast-paced facilities.
This demand will become even more intense as time allotted for design and construction is decreased. The 1997 National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors states, "Trends in the amount of time needed for factory construction, tool installation, and factory ramp are in conflict with future needs."
As diagrammed in Fig. 1, the time to first wafer start - including design, construction, and tool installation - was approximately 24 months in 1997. The industry`s need is to reduce this time to 12 months by 2012, which implies a design-construction sequence of just nine months. Shortening the time for construction means that more construction professionals with a knowledge of the uniqueness of clean-manufacturing-facility construction techniques must be available.
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Figure 1. Time to first wafer start. (Source: 1997 NTRS)
After the time to first wafer start (24 months), a period is required for the installation of additional tools and for ramping the fab to full production capability. In this scenario, the design and construction segments account for about 16 of the 24 months. For the foreseeable future, the tool installation and production ramping times will not be noticeably reduced. This puts pressure on the architectural and construction industries to reduce their segments of the formula.
The management of wafer fab construction differs greatly from other manufacturing plants because of the construction protocol. The control of particulate contamination (i.e., cleanliness) is very important. Increasing controls on cleanliness are required as the facility construction progresses. The final stages of construction are accomplished in the same type of conditions as semiconductor manufacturing itself: a Class 1 environment.
In addition, the use of hazardous gases and chemicals in the manufacturing process makes distribution materials and installation processes more challenging. Distribution systems must be ultra clean to prevent contamination. All gases and chemicals are monitored to ensure safety. The number of systems that are interconnected to facilitate the processing of wafers increases the potential for coordination problems during start-up and commissioning.
As the complexity of a production manufacturing plant increases, so does the complexity of the facility infrastructure support system. In turn, better managerial resources are required to design and construct the facility systems to ensure proper operation in support of the manufacturing process. Sufficient personnel must be trained in the management of the construction process to ensure timely and cost-effective delivery of the advanced technology facility.
Our unique program for advanced technology production facilities at Arizona State University is rooted in this need. We are not aware of any other program like it. While many universities and laboratories work on improving semiconductor designs or portions of the semiconductor manufacturing process, we are looking at the facility and how to improve the design and construction process and its management.
Program background
In 1995, management at Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector recognized the need for additional training and education of its construction workforce that builds advanced wafer fabrication facilities. Motorola approached the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University (ASU) with a request to establish a program in cleanroom construction on the ASU campus in Tempe, Arizona.
Initially, the knowledge base to develop the curriculum for such a program was not available at the school. However, industry personnel who are considered experts in various disciplines and construction methods for advanced technology facility construction were available in the Phoenix metropolitan area (Table 1.)
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Motorola provided the initial list of potential instructors for the course. It also provided access to the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) Recommended Practice 12, Considerations in Cleanroom Design, the textbook for the course. Beginning with coursework development in November 1995, our first class of 35 students began in January 1996. The challenge was that we began without a model and with a limited amount of written material. Our resources came principally from the local experts, who taught various segments of the course.
We have now developed a unique model for the education of project and construction managers for advanced modern semiconductor manufacturing facility projects. We offer a graduate program that teaches the fundamentals of controlled environment (cleanroom) construction, including facilities used for semiconductor, flat panel display, and disk drive manufacturing. While we are focusing on the microelectronics industry, many of the same concepts can be used in the pharmaceutical industry.
The course consists of 13 technical modules (Fig. 2) developed and taught by our industry experts (Table 2) to ensure the information provided is accurate and current. The course is a semester long (15 weeks) with modules taken sequentially during the semester. By using industry experts to teach the course modules, the gap between academia and industry for specialized, advanced technology construction projects is easily bridged, and the latest and best information is available to our students in the classroom. For example:
Gary Pitts, VP of engineered systems for Ionics Pure Solutions, teaches the concepts behind system design and installation for ultrapure water. He brings to the classroom a wealth of experience on the design and installation of reverse osmosis, deionized water systems that is normally not available in a university classroom.
Bill Acorn, president and owner of Acorn Engineering and Consulting, brings 20 years of semiconductor fab design experience to the classroom. His work in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) covers many different types of facilities, both new and retrofits. Acorn`s knowledge and experience is invaluable in a classroom situation; he has also written a book on code compliance issues for semiconductor plants.
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Figure2. The thirteen modules of the "cleanroom" course work at Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University.
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A unique feature of the program involves "semester project proposal presentations." These provide real world flavor and experience when the final design-build proposals from student "companies" are given to a panel of industry representatives that acts as the "client" board of directors.
Success to date
To date, typical enrollment has been 20 to 25 students/semester. Through the spring semester of 1998, we have educated 125 individuals from the industry and 32 students in ASU`s graduate program. Students from the industry have come from construction firms, architectural and engineering consulting firms, and from semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel and Motorola. We are proud that our graduates are now working on construction projects in the Southwest and worldwide, in such places as California, Virginia, and Ireland.
Conclusion
Working professionals can provide a unique perspective on the methods of an industry. For advanced technology facilities, the knowledge base cannot reside in one person because of the many technical systems that are required to support the facility and the speed at which design and construction proceeds. Specialized courses such as the cleanroom construction course at Del E. Webb School of Construction can expand a student`s background and increase his or her potential for future employers. An academic institution ought to make the latest techniques and methods available to its students; however, without industry support, that may not be possible. A partnership between a university and industry professionals can provide a unique way to educate students and to add to the knowledge of the university.
ALLAN CHASEY received his BS in civil engineering from Arizona State University; his MS in engineering management from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Dayton, OH; and his PhD in civil engineering and construction management from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA. He is a registered professional engineer in Arizona. He served with the Civil Engineering Squadron of the US Air Force. Chasey is an assistant professor at the Del E. Webb School of Construction, Arizona State University, PO Box 870204, Tempe, AZ 85287; ph 602/965-7437, fax 602/965-9842, e-mail [email protected].