When The Chips Are Down

by Aiden Vaughan

  Instead of their usual school outfits of tee shirts and jeans, Jason and Daniel dressed up for the interviews. Jason had on a brand new navy blue polo shirt and khaki pants while Daniel wore a long sleeved dress shirt and pleated twill trousers. Both boys still wore their chucks, but had on their nicest pairs. “After all,” Daniel said, “All the photographers I see wear sneakers on the job.” A little past nine o’clock, Daniel and his mother Melinda pulled up to the front of the Hunter home. She had agreed to drop the boys off at DCC and then pick them up later when they were finished with their interviews.

  Jason and Daniel arrived at the reception desk at DCC a little past nine thirty. The receptionist issued visitor’s passes to the boys and paged Junjie Liu. A few minutes later, they were ushered into his office. After greetings and hand shakes all around, Mr. Liu told the boys that he had arranged a tour of the facilities for them so they could get an idea of the overall operation. Then when they had completed their tour, he would be available to answer any questions they might have, and the company’s CEO, Chang Chao Ling, had agreed to meet with the boys for about ten minutes.

  There was a knock on the office door, and after Mr. Liu said “enter” in walked a young man in his mid-twenties about six feet tall, with curly brown hair, a pleasant demeanor, hazel colored eyes, and a winning smile. He was wearing a button down light blue shirt with red striped tie, dark grey pants, and dark grey and black New Balance running shoes.

  “Meet my assistant, Charles Enfield,” Mr. Liu began making introductions. “This is Jason Hunter and Daniel Holmes.” The boys shook hands with Charles. “Charles will be taking you on a tour of the facility. I thought you would enjoy touring with someone closer to your age and possessing that same youthful enthusiasm that you both have.”

  After a few more remarks, Charles, Daniel, and Jason left to tour the facilities. Charles had the boys put on protective helmets. As they were walking down the hallway, Charles asked, “How much do you guys know about the manufacturing process for chips?”

  “Not a lot other than they are made from silicon and that their design is quite complicated,” Jason replied. “This is our first up close look at the overall manufacturing process.”

  “Like anything complicated, there is an intricate set of steps needed to make chips,” Charles began. “Our manufacturing area is set into different workstations to complete each step.” They had arrived at a set of double doors. “The first stage of the process is the creation of the wafers. Wafers are made from highly purified sand, which has been refined into pure silicon. You can see in these different glass cases the various stages of their manufacture.”

  Inside the work area there were several workers monitoring the progress of the chips. They looked more like surgeons than factory workers with the disposable coverings they wore on their heads, bodies, and over their shoes. Jason took a couple of minutes to talk to the workers about their jobs, while Daniel took a series of photos with his digital camera. The workers came out of the work area to the “safety” area to talk with Jason and Charles.

  A few minutes later, they walked to the next workstation, where the silicon wafers were sliced into thin pieces. One side of each wafer was then highly polished to mirror-like smoothness. That was the side on which the circuitry for the chips was placed. Jason commented on the precision-like nature of the cutting and polishing machines. The worker responded by describing the amount of time that they would spend adjusting and cleaning each machine. Daniel concentrated on getting pictures of the machines and of the workers running them.

  The next workstations were totally enclosed, and they couldn’t actually go inside the room, but there were wide plate glass windows through which they could see the manufacturing processes. “This area is where a layer of silicon dioxide is placed on the wafers and allowed to dry,” Charles explained. “Then through a process called photolithography, a complex pattern of circuits is transferred to the wafer. It is like we are printing the circuitry patterns on each layer of a chip.”

  Charles then pointed to another work area in the back. “In that area, the chips are exposed to light and a chemical process which etches the patterns on the chips. This process ends up making very tiny ‘grooves’ on the chips. Then those grooves are flooded with electrons to create a pathway for the circuitry material, which is normally copper. These steps are repeated several times to build up multiple layers of circuits on the chips.”

  After spending some time observing the process, the three walked to the metal plating workstation. “Here copper or aluminum is electro-plated onto the surface of the chip to create its conductive parts, the actual working circuitry. Again it is a very precision process due to the miniaturization of each chip’s design.” Charles asked one of the workers to come out and talk with them for a few minutes.

  The worker, Connie Siebel, described in detail all of the steps that she and her co-workers went through to ensure that each chip was properly manufactured. “It’s a very intense work area, because of the heat, chemicals, and noise of the electro-plating process.”

  Jason asked Connie several questions about the training that she had to have to do this kind of work, and she told him about the education and practical work experience needed to get this job. Meanwhile Daniel was able to get a number of good photos.

  After leaving the manufacturing area, Charles then took the boys to the quality control area. “After the chips are manufactured, each chip on the wafer is tested to make sure it works. Those that fail are sorted out and discarded. It’s easier for us just to make a new chip than try to repair a chip with any defects. Those chips passing the test are then cut and packaged.”

  Kevin Sutcliffe, the quality control manager, came out and talked with Charles, Daniel, and Jason about how the quality control process worked at DCC. “With so many chips to test each hour, we have a very strict quality control system in place. Any chip that doesn’t perform perfectly is discarded. Those chips are recycled. The chips that pass our testing procedures go to the packaging department.”

  Jason asked Kevin how important the quality control process was. “It is one of the most essential parts of the manufacturing process. The reputation of DCC relies on the enforcement of good quality control. If our products don’t meet the highest standards in the industry, then our customer base will end up going to our competitors to purchase their chips. Obviously we don’t want that to happen and it is the job of this department to ensure that only quality chips are sold to our customers.”

  After they finished talking, Daniel took some great pictures of the quality control work area and of Kevin with Jason and Charles. Their next stop on the tour was the packaging area. There was a lot of automated machinery at work here, as the chips were sorted and packaged.

  Ron Floury, the packaging department manager told them, “With so many different models of chips, we carefully plan packaging runs for each specific model. First each chip type must be sorted into its own storage area. We need a minimum of five thousand chips ready to justify a normal packaging run. Then when it is time to actually run the packaging process, we have a large number of those chips ready to justify the time and effort needed to set up the packaging machinery.”

  The next stop on their tour was the Research and Development Department. Charles introduced the boys to Dr. Jignesh Ramanathan, who was one of their chip designers. Dr. Ramanathan explained how their department was constantly working to improve the design and performance speed of the chips. “We do constant and complete checks on all of our chips to make sure that they conform to the standards that we have set for them.”

  Jason asked, “How do you deal with functional problems, for example if a chip doesn’t attain the specifications that it is supposed to meet?”

  “There really isn’t anything that we could do in a case like that except to pull the chips from the marketplace and discard them. As you saw from your tour of the plant, each chip is too intricate in design to be repaired. All we could do at tha
t point is replace them with new ones.”

  “How long does it take to bring a newly designed chip to the marketplace?” Jason continued.

  “Normally the process takes between six months to a year of time to complete the design, manufacturing of prototypes, and the testing process,” Dr. Ramanathan replied. “It is a very expensive and time consuming process!”

  After they left the Research and Development department, their tour continued on to the security office. There they met with the Chief of Security, Urbano Santos. He described to them the different purposes for the security department at DCC. “Our first concern is to monitor the manufacturing process to make sure that our employees are safe and to quickly act if there are any accidents with the machinery, or fires or other problems caused by chemicals. We have a monitoring system that continually watches the process. Our second concern is the safety of our employees. All people in the facility must be wearing a security badge or they are considered intruders and a danger to our facility. We can actually track the whereabouts of every employee with these badges. Anyone moving around our facilities without a badge automatically triggers an alarm. Then immediately a security team is sent to deal with the intruder.” He then showed Charles, Jason, and Daniel where they appeared on the tracking grid.

  “That seems almost like science fiction!” Jason exclaimed. “I take it that you are not able to transport people yet.”

  Urbano Santos laughed, “No, we don’t have any tractor beams installed here. But who knows what the future will bring!”

  “Have you made changes in your security system since the plant was attacked last year?” Jason followed up.

  “Oh yes,” Santos replied. “Since then we have made sure that anyone who tries to break in will set off a lot more alarms and warning systems. We have instituted more internal security protections to make sure that our employees are safe inside here, and that our building remains secure at all times. Break in now and it’s no es su dia afortunado, not your lucky day!”

  The shipping department was next on their tour. “We can ship our products by conventional shipping methods,” one of the workers said, “but most of our bigger customers require truckloads of chips rather than just a few packages worth.” Besides a series of tables where orders could be boxed and shipped, there was a large storage area with many shelves that were used to stack up boxes of chips ready for shipment by truck. Daniel walked all around and got a lot of good photographs of the work area.

  As they left the shipping department, Charles said, “Now you have seen the manufacturing side of our operation. Our last remaining stops are the part of DCC that handles the marketing and sales of our products, and the executives like Mr. Liu who manage the company.” They next entered the marketing and sales area. Elliot Brevard, the Vice President of Marketing, had agreed to talk with them for a few minutes, so they went over to his office, which was in the back of a large office area filled with cubicles. There were about a dozen employees making sales calls and filling orders.

  “Welcome to DCC,” Elliot said, as he got up to shake hands with Jason and Daniel. “What high school are you from?”

  “We are from Merriam High School,” Jason replied. “We are doing a series of articles on careers in technology for our school newspaper, and we appreciate you taking some time to talk with us today.”

  “It’s always a pleasure to meet young people who are interested in what we do here at DCC. After all, it is people like yourselves who are the future of our industry!”

  Jason then asked Elliot a number of general questions about how their marketing and sales teams worked together. After Elliot explained that, Jason asked a more specific question.

  “How long does it take to market a new chip design?”

  “Normally there is a six to twelve month timeline for the R&D portion of a new chip. When it is in its final testing phase, then we get involved. We inform our customers in a number of different ways. Since we are dealing with the world of technology, one of our most important goals at this stage is to promote the new product in as many high tech ways that we can, through websites, blogs, text messages, emails and RSS feeds, to name a few. And of course we will also do conventional marketing through brochures, catalogues, and sales calls.”

  “With all of that time and effort invested, how frustrating is it to deal with product delays, or losses?”

  “It is very frustrating, and it tends to put a black eye on the company image when we can’t actually deliver what we promised would be available. Our marketing and sales teams need to work overtime to repair the damage and placate our customers. The worst possible scenario like that would be if a product is defective in some way. Not only do we have to deal with what I just described, but we would have to recall the entire product. To keep from losing our customers, we would then have to replace it with a new or better chip, and reship it to all of the customers who purchased the defective chip. In some cases we would need to refund money to our customers.”

  Jason asked a few more questions about their new product lines. Elliot answered and also gave Jason several brochures and a catalogue of their products. Daniel had been taking some casual pictures around the area, and then took a couple of posed photos with Elliott, Jason, and Charles.

  Jason then thanked Elliot for his time, and Charles, Daniel, and he returned to Junjie Liu’s office.

  “How did you enjoy your tour of the plant?” Mr. Liu asked Jason and Daniel.

  “It was very informative and interesting. I got a lot of useful information for my article,” Jason told him.

  “And I was able to take many good photographs. I hope they all turned out okay,” Daniel said.

  “I will now take you to our company CEO’s office. He is very busy, but as a special favor to me, he is willing to talk with you for about ten minutes.” Junjie led the boys to Chang Chao Ling’s office. Mr. Ling’s executive assistant Alison phoned into his office to see if he was ready to talk to the boys. A few minutes later he came out and brought everyone inside his office.

  “Jason, what did you think of our facilities here?” Mr. Ling asked after everyone was introduced.

  “Everything was quite impressive,” Jason replied. “Thank you for opening your doors to Daniel and me. We have learned quite a lot about the chip manufacturing industry today.”

  “And do you think that high school students who read your article would be interested in working in the chip industry?” Mr. Ling asked.

  “Yes, I do, especially now that I know what a wide variety of jobs are available in your industry,” Jason answered.

  “It takes a real team effort for our company to function properly,” Junjie Liu added.

  “Mr. Ling, how do you see the future of the chip industry shaping up in the next ten years?” Jason asked.

  “I see a continued trend toward smaller chips with greater computing power. That is where we have invested a lot of our company resources lately, and that reflects what you see in the marketplace. More small sized devices are being made now with increasingly larger computing capabilities. This is especially true for hand held devices like smart phones and personal assistant devices. Eventually they will have the same computing power as conventional laptop computers.”

  “Are your new DRAM chips leading the way toward this new computing power? I understand that they have been the target of robbers and thieves lately.”

  “The crimes against our company have been very upsetting,” Mr. Ling replied with a frown on his face. “We are trying to get our new Ultimo line of DRAM chips out to our principal customers who manufacture handheld devices and our attempts to do so have been thwarted on several occasions.”

  Jason continued asking a few more questions about the industry, then Daniel had everyone pose for pictures. Jason thanked Mr. Ling for his time and information. Daniel and Jason returned to Mr. Liu’s office.

  “You now have had the complete tour of the DCC Chip Company. Did you learn anything new today?” Mr. L
iu asked after he had closed the door.

  “We learned a lot about the chip industry, the DCC way of doing things, and talked to a lot of people in your company,” Jason replied. “We will go over our recordings and download the photographs. We gathered a lot of information today, and it will take us some time to absorb it all, discuss what we found out, and come up with our conclusions. We will be on a vacation trip for the rest of the week, but should have something to report to you this weekend. One more thing, Mr. Liu. Do you have any samples of the new chip, the one that has been stolen, that we could have?”

  Mr. Liu said that he had a few, and placed a couple of samples in an envelope for Jason. Daniel had called his mom on his cell phone to come and pick them up after they left Mr. Ling’s office. Soon she arrived to take them back home.

  Chapter 14

  Traveling to Yosemite

  (Tuesday)

  After they arrived back at their homes, Jason and Daniel spent some time working with the information that they had gathered at the DCC Chip Company that morning. Daniel downloaded all of the pictures that he had taken onto his computer and then entered metadata for each photo about who was in it, and what the photo was showing. Jason reviewed the recordings that he had made during the tour, writing down notes about each person whom he talked to, and summarizing the important things that they discussed. This took both boys about two hours to complete. Later in the afternoon, they got together at Daniel’s house. Daniel showed Jason a slideshow of the pictures he had taken.

  “These pictures are great, Daniel!” Jason exclaimed. “You captured a lot of good information and have a pretty good selection of employees. This may turn out to be very useful in the future.” Jason went over his notes on the interviews, and there were a couple of things that Daniel remembered that he added to them. “I would really like to talk this over with Joe while we are staying at his cabin,” Jason concluded. “I think he might have some insights for us.”