fab24hr Blog
Notes from inside a chip fab, and every game update
This is fab24hr's own blog. Some posts are fab basics: things you run into in the game, explained in plain English, with the reason they are the way they are. Others are game updates: what's new and why. The fab basics are written from public, general sources; the companies, people and events in the game are all fictional.
The life of a chip: a new main story that follows one chip from the R&D line to someone's hands
fab24hr's mid-October update: a new main story (beta) follows a hearing-aid chip through 12 chapters, and A day in the fab now has ten roles.
Why is the lithography area in a chip fab yellow?
The yellow lights in a fab's lithography area protect the photoresist on the wafers, which reacts to ultraviolet and blue light. Explained simply.
Why do chip fab workers wear full bunny suits?
Chip fab workers are covered head to toe because people are a cleanroom's biggest source of dirt. Particles, cleanroom classes and gowning, explained.
Why do chip fabs run 24 hours a day?
Chip fabs run around the clock and engineers get calls at 3 a.m. Why fabs rarely stop, and how shifts and on-call work, in plain English.
- What is fab24hr?: the two ways to play, the four shifts, common questions, sources
- The life of a chip: how chips are made: tape-out, pilot run, mass production, wafer test, packaging, shipping
- A day in the life of a fab engineer: who does what (PE, EE, PIE, manufacturing), and the day hour by hour
- Who works in a chip fab: technicians, manufacturing, process, equipment, litho, facilities, integration, R&D, the chief, the vendor, and test and packaging at the test-and-assembly house: each role's day
- Chip fab jargon in plain English: MO, Hold, Q-time, OCAP and the rest, one plain sentence each
- fab24hr in the classroom: 20- and 40-minute lesson plans, one chapter of the main story per lesson, discussion questions, devices and privacy
- About and press kit: trailer, gameplay clips, descriptions and key facts