Damages at SK Hynix DRAM Plant More Series Than Expected

From X-bit Labs: Although SK Hynix said last week that the fire did not destroy crucial manufacturing equipment during the fire at Fab 1 and Fab 2 in Wuxi, China, it looks like the things are more complicated. While some of the manufacturing tools were not damaged during the fire, a lot of equipment has been harmed. All in all, it is going to take months before shipments resume, according to DRAMeXchange market analysts.

The fire accident experienced by SK Hynix's fab [the fab 1 and 2 are located in the same complex] originated from its chemical vapor deposition (CVD) machinery. Other than the severely burned down equipment, the fire, heavy smoke, and power shortages are known to have also contributed to the direct contamination of the clean room and the notably damaged wafer production lines, DRAMeXchange claims.

Luckily, SK Hynix's Wuxi Plant is based on a special "Gemini" architecture, which enables the clean room and other important facilities to operate independently. Under such a design, even when a major accident hits an area, a plant would still be able to maintain at least 50% of its total production capacity, based on assumptions of the analysts.

While SK Hynix is believed to have preserved half of its Wuxi plant production, a number of its important facility regions are reportedly still heavily worn down from the smoke. The date for when the final rebuilding procedures will take place, as such, remains highly uncertain.

With the fire originating from within the clean room, the difficulty of recovering the affected half of the capacity in the short term – assuming both the equipment and clean rooms were heavily damaged – are also relatively high. Sources with close knowledge of semiconductor equipment have so far indicated that the recovery process could take as long as three months to half a year to complete. To facilitate the entire process, SK Hynix has sent up to hundreds of professionals and engineers to visit the accident site and to assess the situation more carefully.

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