A TECHie's first day in the Cleanroom Environment

For someone who has never been into a cleanroom, I probably had the same false impression as a layman about the environment inside wafer fabrication plants. I have seen countless shots of people heavily "wrapped" up in "space suits" on TV programmes and have instantly assumed that they are handling highly toxic and harmful chemicals, and therefore the get-up.

It turned out to be one big misconception!

The reason behind these "space suits"- which incidentally are smocks - is the sensitive nature of the DRAM chips. These products can be easily contaminated, and rendered useless, by dirt and dust particles in the air. The air pressures of the fabrication plants are regulated constantly to minimize the amount of particles in the air in the cleanroom.

With that concern far behind me, I began to "suit-up" with great enthusiasm. It started with a hunt for four pieces of specially made clothing from booties to head-dress. I observed how fellow TECH experts geared up within three minutes while I struggled for at least fifteen.

I went through the first sliding door, together with my trainer. I stood in awe of immense machines and sophisticated mechanisms in the plant, which I will to get to work with. The yellow lights (due to light-sensitive processes) and the people in the smocks gives the whole place a rather surrealistic and science-fiction type of atmosphere.

The most interesting part of the orientation tour is to witness the actual production of memory chips, which we use in our everyday lives. Blank wafers go through numerous but sometimes repetitive processes, which takes up to ~60 days to become a functional product. Most parts of the process are automated but I was very glad to observe the "human touch" at almost every corner. These wafer chips are handled with care usually reserved only for babies and I noticed groups of engineers huddled together discussing issues of great importance. The laughter of my soon-to-be colleagues draw me to the fact that this is just like any other workplace abide the "science-fiction" type of atmosphere.

There is much evidence to show the company's emphasis on safety. The comprehensive safety measures and Emergency Response team on 24-hr standby assure that my well-being is being taken care of.

Within the first 10 minutes, I was convinced that this will be a very exciting and challenging environment to work in!

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