fab24hr worksheet
Print it and write as you play
Print this page from your browser and only the worksheet below comes out. All the questions are open, with no right answers; a reason in your own words is enough. How to use it in class: fab24hr in the classroom.
fab24hr worksheet
NameClassDate
Before playing
- Starting from a blank wafer, how many steps do you think it takes to make a chip? Write your guess and why.
- What do you think is the hardest part of working in a fab?
While playing
- My role and shift:
- The first thing that happened on this shift:
- One decision I made, and what it cost (who lost time, who saved something):
- A word I didn't know until I tapped it, in my own words:
Take one machine apart
- The machine I looked at:
- What it does, in my own words (one or two sentences):
- The part that surprised me most, and why:
After playing
- What will the people after me receive because of my decision?
- If I played again, would I choose differently? Why?
- Which of these roles would I most like to do, and least like to do? Why?
The fab, people, lot numbers and figures in the game are fictional; the explanations of machines and jargon are drawn from public sources.
- What is fab24hr?: the two ways to play, the four shifts, common questions, sources
- The life of a chip: the life of one chip: 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, Facilities, integration, QA, production control, masks, R&D, the chief, the vendor, and test and assembly 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
- Chip fab machines, taken apart: What 25 chip fab machines do (etch, scanner, CMP, furnace, packaging…), each as a 3D model to take apart
- fab24hr in the classroom: Semiconductor lesson plans: 20/40-minute plans, a lesson per chapter or process area (3D machines, the game, articles), discussion questions, a worksheet, FAQ
- About and press kit: trailer, gameplay clips, descriptions and key facts
- fab24hr Blog: Semiconductors, how chips are made, fab life, packaging, words from the news: plain-English articles by topic
Latest
- Why do chips use power? Leakage and standby current, explained
- What is WAT, and how does a wafer map show what went wrong?
- What does the customer liaison at a test-and-assembly house do?
- How is an R&D line different from a production fab?
- What does an R&D integration engineer do with a new chip's first lot?
- What does a mask engineer do in a chip fab?
- What does production control do in a chip fab, and how are due dates set?
- What does QA (quality assurance) do in a chip fab?