So whats going to be faster, the 6" or the 8" ?6 Inch:Issues to...

So whats going to be faster, the 6" or the 8" ?

6 Inch:
Issues to resolve are solving the production bottleneck and "an easilty correctable problem"
1. Additonal equipment brought online Late Feb
2. Lead Batch further 6 weeks to bring to completion.
Best case Mid April.

8 Inch:
Issues to resolve are based around getting up to speed on where the orignal 6" Fabs already are.
Taking into account a different widget size and difference in materials.
1. Solve these manufacturing issues in the "final process steps".
2. Another 3 weeks to produce.
So "X" time plus 3 weeks.

Place your bets gentlemen.
Which one will be faster ?


"On the 28 Nov 2023 EM informed the company that the lead wafers produced by the 6” fab failed
basic electrical testing. Failure Analysis conducted by the company upon receipt of the wafer,
revealed the root cause to be a faulty etch process in one of the earlier fabricated layers of the
device, an easily correctable problem.
On 24 Jan 2024 the 6” fab informed the vendor that it must temporarily suspend advancing the
backup batches of our wafers due to an unanticipated increase in demand by a very significant
Fab customer. To resolve their production bottleneck, the fab acquired additional equipment
which they anticipate bringing online in mid to late February. Once they are able to resume
fabrication it is estimated that 5-6 weeks will be needed to bring the lead backup batch to
completion.

Wafer production at both 8” fabs was proceeding ahead of pace until one of the last steps of
fabrication when it encountered a particular problem related to excessive wafer stress. One of the
major challenges in MEMS (and semiconductor) fabrication, is that stress is accumulated
throughout each of the many fabrication steps. This stress needs to be properly managed to
prevent the wafer from warping or bowing or even cracking during or after annealing.

Consequently, as is the current case, excessive warpage prevents the wafers from advancing to
the next fabrication step as the deformities do not permit proper positioning or processing of the
wafer in the equipment. The larger 8” wafers combined with the atypical material used in the
layer of our device requires the Fab to apply additional effort to correct and the stress of the final
process steps. The fabs currently estimate that they could complete fabrication within 2-3 weeks
of attaining satisfactory results."