A day in the life of a fab engineer
Process, equipment, integration and manufacturing, hour by hour
This page lays out the day in fab24hr: from the 02:47 on-call phone call to the handover to the night shift. A wafer fab never stops, and when one tool goes down, a whole row of people feel it. The tools, lots and people below are fictional; the work is drawn from engineers' and manufacturing supervisors' public accounts (see Sources on the About page).
Who is who: PE, EE, PIE, manufacturing
- Process engineer (PE): owns whether what a tool makes is right. Watches measurements and control charts, manages recipes, handles process problems, and runs the qual after a repair. In the game, this is you, looking after an etch tool called ETCH-03.
- Equipment engineer (EE): owns whether the tool runs at all. Maintenance, parts, alarms.
- Process integration engineer (PIE): owns the lots. Looks across the whole flow and decides whether a lot on hold continues, gets reworked or is scrapped.
- Manufacturing (MFG): keeps the lots moving. Dispatching, moves, and, when a tool lights up, putting lots on hold by the book and making the first phone call.
- Section chief: reports up the line and asks everyone for a time.
At some companies PE means product engineer. On this page PE always means process engineer.
On-call: the call in the middle of the night
A fab never shuts down, so engineers take turns being on-call. When a tool fails at night, the night shift's first call goes to whoever is on-call that week. You are at home and can't see the tool, so you ask the night shift to be your eyes and give instructions over the phone: stop the tool, put the lot on hold, find the cause in the morning. What a call at night needs is not the answer. It needs an instruction that keeps things from getting worse.
The day, hour by hour
What each of the five roles is doing at each point of the day in the game. One thread runs from start to finish: a yellow light nobody looked at for three days, a red light at night, a wafer stuck in the tool, a manual fix, a mis-operation (MO), an incident report.
02:47 Late-night call
- You (process PE) On-call: have the night shift check for you, give instructions, set the wet clean order
- Equipment EE Woken by your call at 03:40
- Manufacturing MFG Night shift puts the lot on hold, makes the calls, writes the handover sheet
07:30 Handover
- You (process PE) Read the handover sheet, mark what to chase
- Equipment EE Read the night shift's alarm log
- Manufacturing MFG Handover tool by tool, set up dispatch
- Integration PIE Find out why the lot is on hold
- Chief Read the night shift's incident summary
08:30 Morning meeting
- You (process PE) Answer what time the tool will be released
- Equipment EE Report tool status
- Manufacturing MFG Report moves and WIP
- Integration PIE Report hot lot progress
- Chief Ask about the board item by item
09:00 Red light
- You (process PE) Judge whether the process was affected
- Equipment EE Check the alarm, open the chamber, replace the part
- Manufacturing MFG Put lots on hold, notify, reschedule
- Integration PIE Decide what happens to the lot
- Chief Wait for the update, report upward
11:20 Qual run
- You (process PE) Season, qual run, say the tool can take lots
- Equipment EE Tool handback, write the repair record
- Manufacturing MFG Wait for tool release, get ready to dispatch
- Integration PIE Write the rework etch instruction
- Chief Fend off the pressure to rush the lot
13:40 Manual rework
- You (process PE) Manual run at the tool
- Equipment EE Asked over to double-check
- Manufacturing MFG Push for a move-out time
- Integration PIE Wait for the result on wafer 7
- Chief Asked for progress by the department manager
13:58 MO
- You (process PE) Hold, notify, leave the scene as it is
- Equipment EE Help check the tool log
- Manufacturing MFG Put lots on hold, reschedule
- Integration PIE Decide on the affected wafers
- Chief Get the notification, schedule the review meeting
15:00 Incident report
- You (process PE) Write what happened, containment, root cause, countermeasures
- Equipment EE Provide the alarm and repair records
- Manufacturing MFG Provide the dispatch and time records
- Integration PIE Provide the affected wafer count and delivery date
- Chief Review the report
16:30 Review meeting
- You (process PE) Present, answer questions
- Equipment EE Explain what caused the red light
- Manufacturing MFG Explain the impact on moves
- Integration PIE Explain the impact on the lot and the customer
- Chief Chair, assign countermeasure owners
18:00 One more thing
- You (process PE) Cut the report to one page, answer the customer in one sentence
- Equipment EE Go fix another tool
- Manufacturing MFG Clock out
- Integration PIE Take the customer's call
- Chief Wait for that one page
19:10 Keep an eye on it
- You (process PE) Watch the helium flow after the part swap
- Equipment EE Called away to ETCH-07
19:25 Handover to the night shift
- You (process PE) Write the handover sheet
- Equipment EE Handover to night shift equipment
- Manufacturing MFG Night shift takes over tool by tool
- Integration PIE Confirm who can release the lots on hold
- Chief Sign the scrap and incident forms
Four colleagues, four days
The four people a process engineer deals with every day: how their day goes, what bothers them most, and when they come looking for you.
Kai｜EE Etch equipment
Looks after the tool hardware. Whether a tool can run is his call
How the day goes
- 07:30 Take over the shift, see which tools had an alarm overnight
- 09:00 Walk the tools, check part lifetimes and the maintenance schedule
- 10:00 Do PM: open the chamber, clean, swap consumables
- Red light Trace the alarm, swap parts, pump down and leak-check
- 16:00 Chase spare-part deliveries, schedule tomorrow's maintenance
- End of day Hand unfinished repairs over to night-shift equipment
What bothers them most
- The line wants capacity, so maintenance keeps getting pushed back
- Too many yellow-light warnings to tell which one is real
- The repair is done, but there is no tool handback until process passes the qual run
When you'll run into them
- A tool shows a red light: he goes out to it with you
- After maintenance or a repair: he hands the tool to you for the qual run
- Whether to swap a part early: he needs your process data
Ya-Ting｜PIE Process integration
Owner of the lots. Watches yield across the whole flow and decides what happens to a lot
How the day goes
- 08:00 Check how far her products got overnight and which lots are on hold
- 08:30 Report hot lot progress at the morning meeting
- 10:00 Decide on lots on hold: continue, rework or scrap
- 14:00 Go through measurements and electrical data, chase yield
- 16:30 Incident review meeting
- All day Answer "When will this lot be out?"
What bothers them most
- A lot is on hold and the hold reason field is blank
- Every step says the problem isn't theirs
- The moment a hot lot gets stuck, the phone rings
When you'll run into them
- Your step put her lot on hold: she waits for you to judge whether the process was affected
- Rework etch, rework: she writes the instruction, you carry it out
- Incident report: she provides the number of wafers affected and the delivery date
Yun｜MFG Manufacturing, day shift
Keeps the lots flowing. Handles dispatch, chases moves, and is the first to see a light come on
How the day goes
- 07:20 Take over the shift: handover with the night shift, tool by tool
- 08:00 Set today's dispatch order, hot lots first
- 08:30 Report moves and WIP at the morning meeting
- All day Walk the line, clear stuck lots, watch for lights on the tools
- Red light Put the lot on hold per the OCAP, notify the tool owner
- 19:20 Handover to the night shift
What bothers them most
- A tool is down and nobody will say when it will be back up
- Engineers borrow tools for experiments and eat up capacity
- Instructions for manual operations sit in chat messages, a long scroll up
When you'll run into them
- A light comes on at a tool: she calls you
- Tool release: she dispatches lots only after you say it's OK
- Manual run: she wants an instruction she can actually read
Chief Chen Etch section
Head of the Etch section. Reports upward, asks downward for a time
How the day goes
- 07:45 Read the night shift's incident summary
- 08:30 Run the morning meeting, go through the board item by item
- 10:00 Department meeting: get asked "Why is there a red light?"
- 13:00 Sign scrap forms, incident forms and change requests
- 16:30 Run the incident review meeting
- Evening Carry the duty phone; major incidents have to be escalated
What bothers them most
- The higher-ups ask only two things: when the tool will be back up, and how many wafers were scrapped
- The incident report says "human error, staff reminded", and next time it happens again
- Never enough people; new hires are covering shifts on their own within a few months
When you'll run into them
- Morning meeting: he wants a time from you
- After an MO: he wants a report that explains it clearly
- Countermeasures: he decides whether they get the resources
Live the day yourself
fab24hr is a free 3D game that runs in the browser, nothing to install. Whatever time you open it, you start the shift for that hour: a phone call at night, firefighting in the morning, a manual rework in the afternoon, and an evening where you can't get out the door. A shift takes a few minutes, and every bit of jargon in the dialogue can be tapped for a plain-English explanation.
- About fab24hr: how to play, the four shifts, common questions, sources
- Chip fab jargon in plain English: MO, Hold, Q-time, OCAP and the rest, one plain sentence each