Intel Oregon Fab Expansion Milestone: First Chipmaking Tool Rolls In
Aug. 9, 2021 -- For most people, a tool is something you hold in your hand: pliers, hammer, screwdriver. Inside an Intel chip factory, a tool is a whole different deal. Fab tools are huge and hugely costly and take entire teams to muscle into place and install.
As Intel aggressively ramps its worldwide manufacturing footprint, a construction milestone recently passed at Intel’s Ronler Acres factory in Hillsboro, Oregon.
At the company’s massive $3 billion Mod3 factory expansion, the first tool rolled in. The honor went to a thin film deposition tool. It arrived not in a leather tool belt, but aboard two semitractor-trailers. Once completed and hooked up, it will weigh 10 tons. And by the time the Mod3 project is done in about six months, the thin film deposition tool will be joined by more than a dozen like it. A typical Intel fab, once built out, is stuffed with about 1,200 chipmaking tools, many of them costing millions of dollars apiece.
A team inside Intel Oregon’s Ronler Acres Mod3 factory expansion rolls the first chipmaking tool into place. When it’s completed in about six months, the $3 billion factory will house about 1,500 tools. The Oregon factory expansion is part of Intel’s work to increase chip manufacturing capacity worldwide. (Credit: Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation)
To satisfy the mushrooming global demand for computer chips, Intel is building or expanding factories in Arizona, New Mexico, Ireland, Israel and Costa Rica. And CEO Pat Gelsinger has told the tech world to stay tuned for news of more Intel fabs around the world.
A team inside Intel Oregon’s Ronler Acres Mod3 fab expansion begins to install the plant’s first chipmaking tool. When it’s completed in about six months, the $3 billion fab will house about 1,500 tools. The Oregon expansion is part of Intel’s work to increase its chip manufacturing capacity worldwide. (Credit: Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation)
About Intel
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moore’s Law, we continuously work to advance the design and manufacturing of semiconductors to help address our customers’ greatest challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge and every kind of computing device, we unleash the potential of data to transform business and society for the better. To learn more about Intel’s innovations, go to newsroom.intel.com and intel.com.
Source: Intel
