Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Power Outage At Samsung's Fab Destroys 3.5 Percent of Global NAND Flash Output (anandtech.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the limited-supply dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from AnandTech: A half-hour power outage at Samsung's fab near Pyeongtaek, South Korea, disrupted production and damaged tens of thousands of processed wafers. Media reports claim that the outage destroyed as much as 3.5% of the global NAND supply for March, which may have an effect on flash memory pricing in the coming weeks. The outage happened on March 9 and lasted for about 30 minutes, according to a news story from Taiwain-based TechNews that cites further South Korean reports. The report claims that the outage damaged 50,000 to 60,000 of wafers with V-NAND flash memory, which represent 11% of Samsung's monthly output. The report further estimates that the said amount equates to approximately 3.5% of global NAND output, but does not elaborate whether it means wafer output or bit output. Samsung uses its fab near Pyeongtaek to produce 64-layer V-NAND chips used for various applications. The fab is among the largest flash production facilities in the world and therefore any disruption there has an effect on the global output of non-volatile memory. Meanwhile, since production lines have not been damaged and the fab is back online, the significance of such an effect is limited.

4 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What Is a "Fab"? by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you didn't understand any of the abbreviates or acronyms then this isn't the site for you.

  2. Re:What Is a "Fab"? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 3, Informative

    Fab is a common term of art for a facility that produces chips.

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!
  3. Re:How damaged? by DRJlaw · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm curious how loss of power would destroy already-fabbed wafers. Do they need to be kept in conditions that require power to maintain or something?

    You should realize that these wafers build up 64 layers of flash storage and so include hundreds of precisely deposited layers of deposited and etched materials. Now imaging losing power in the middle of depositing or etching a layer so that the respective materials either fail to be deposited in the required amounts or dwell on the partially completed layer for too long.

  4. Re:Backups? by MarioMax · · Score: 2, Informative

    I work at Intel. Our fabs are comparable to Samsung's fabs in terms of equipment and scale. Ain't no UPS in the world that can keep a fab up and running if a blackout hits, even with backup generators. Most fabs are extremely sensitive to power glitches that last mere seconds, nevermind for a half hour.