Survival of the Fit-Up: The Evolution of the Berkeley Microlab

In July, 2009, the University of California at Berkeley began operation of a new 15,000 square foot clean room-the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory. This laboratory will be the successor to The Berkeley Microlab. All equipment from the Berkeley Microlab and several satellite laboratories is being moved and reconnected in the new facility. Lab management has defined an 18 month tool by tool migration process; not a lab shutdown and restart, so that equipment downtime is minimized for the 500 plus researchers that use the facility. All tool connections are prepared in the new lab then a tool is moved, restarted, qualified, and released for general use in the new facility. This translates into running two operations during the transition process. The construction project delivered a clean room with house utilities distributed throughout all chases but no utility drops for fit-up. Selected strategies to facilitate this effort such as crimp tooling for house utility and exhaust connections, flex conduit and extra length cabling, and 'move litho last' will be presented and discussed. The new Marvell Lab will maintain and expand the Berkeley Microlab tradition of a professionally managed, self supporting, shared laboratory resource open to all academic researchers and selected industry members on a recharge basis with transparent billing and the lowest possible barrier to entry.