A 12nm TSMC silicone plate (Wafer) was found in the garbage box by a Reddit user near the Fab 16 factory of TSMC in Nanjing, China. This incident brought up the complexity of semiconductor production processes and the concept of “chip binning” in a humorous way.“Chip Binning” is described as classification of the produced chips according to their performance. The highest performance chips are divided into upper classes, lower performance or partially defective chips are placed in lower classes and are usually sold at lower prices. For example, a chip with a core defective can be released as a seven core instead of eight. In this way, the defective or low -performance chips that occur during production are evaluated and waste is prevented.
Waste management processes are critical
This silicone plate found by Reddit user Avx512-VNNI was actually a test plate used for calibration of lithography machines and did not contain customer designs. This did not have the risk of revealing any secret design or valuable technological information. However, considering the value of such plates, the event is extremely remarkable.
Reddit users have shown humorous approaches to the event with creative ideas such as saving and frame the plate. This once again revealed how critical quality control and waste management processes are in the semiconductor industry.
