My Job in Salinas

Process Engineer for IDT


Lance in a bunny suit	The Eaton NV-10 Ion Implanter	Q Bay

I worked at IDT's Fab 2 Manufacturing Facility in Salinas, CA.
I joined IDT in May 1996 after leaving the Navy.

IDT manufactured semiconductors on 6" wafers at the Salinas Fab. The completed wafers were transported to our packaging facilities overseas for dicing and final packaging.

I began as a Process Engineer in the Thin Films Group. I was responsible for process control and improvement on Novellus Concept One machines and a Genus 8402 (and later 8710). The Genus tools are used to deposit a tungsten layer on the wafers. The Novellus tools deposited an oxide layer or a nitride layer.

I beame the Implant Engineer, and was later moved from the Thin Films Group to the Diffusion (now Implant / Diffusion) Group. I worked with Eaton implanters. My first implanters were a 3206, and a 6200. The 6200 was a work horse machine, and made it to the very end. I also set up our 8200NV and the two NV-10s we brought in when Fab 3 closed. (The NV 10 was a very tempramental machine, but it would implant 15 wafers at a time - good for speed on simple implants.)

IDT production ran 24/7 most of the time I was there. During a few downturns we tried some other shifts, but returned to the 24/7 when times were good.
I worked many different shifts at IDT, including:
Days (M-F 8-5)
B Shift (Mon - Wed & every other Thurs 7pm -7am)
Mid shift (midnight - 7am (M-F)
Sun-Thurs (8-5)
Sat-Wed (8-5)
Fri-Tues (8-5)

I survived 4 layoffs before my number finally came up. I was on vacation when it happened. IDT shut off my e-mail account, with the standard "he no longer works here" line. A friend called me in Reno to tell me about it. What a great way to find out you've lost your job.

In hind sight, the layoff was probably good for me. (Although it sure didn't seem like it at the time.) I got a decent severance package, and I beat the rush. About a year later, IDT closed down all manufacturing at Fab 2. The old facility just couldn't make the latest, smallest chips.

My next job was with Calpine.

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