In a multi-billion dollar industry where companies feel pressure to continually innovate and increase efficiency, semiconductor manufacturers cannot afford to have anything stop production in their fabrication facilities. This global semiconductor client discovered that the cleanroom in their aging mask operations facility was at risk of going out of compliance due to the state of the mechanical systems. The client chose SSOE, through our Joint Venture Design / Build partnership with JE Dunn, to embark on a nearly 2-year, $150 million project to modernize the facility, bringing it up to specification and into compliance with current standards for code, reliability, and safety.

Upgrading of the facility’s mechanical and process systems was a large undertaking. The work included: 

Hazardous chemical storage space. SSOE addressed the need by expanding the chemical storage space and necessary support systems including exhaust fans and scrubbers, and safety treatment systems for chemical storage areas.

Acid waste neutralization system. SSOE upgraded this system by adding a caustic storage and distribution system and reaction tank modifications.

Additional mechanical and process system upgrades. These included chilled water, heating water, system cross-ties to provide redundancy, process vacuum, house vacuum, and process chilled water supplying the process tools in the fab.

BIM2Fab. SSOE performed detailing of the heating water and chilled water piping to produce fabrication drawings of the piping for the system crossties.

Clean-up. To create adequate space for all new systems, the team demolished and removed obsolete equipment.

A small team on the ground at the client’s facility received support from a remote design team residing in multiple SSOE offices. The project team made extensive use of BIM and Point Cloud software, eliminating the need to locate an entire team on the client’s site. This resulted in significant project savings and allowed the team to make the most of the resources available to them.