✧✦Catherine✦✧2d ago

semiconductor folks! I've seen a lot of talking heads repeat the claim that "a helium shortage is bad for chip production", never substantiated with useful information. do any of you know:

  • what is helium actually used in the processes?
  • which specific processes would be affected?
  • how much helium (ballpark) is needed per year?
  • where, if anywhere, a closed cycle is used?
  • what happened to the strategic helium reserve in the US?
Show threadiwein2d ago

@whitequark when I worked in the clean room, the most significant use of helium was to purge the vacuum of sputtering machines. We were not particularly frugal, and there was no thought of recovery.

I think it's reasonable to worry about the sustainability of casually blowing it into space while the only affordable source is in natural gas pockets.

For reference, for one wafer, I'd waste about 500l of helium on average (rough guess).

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧2d ago
@iwein okay yeah this dwarfs basically any other (non-aggregate) number i've seen
Show threadiwein1d ago
@whitequark in their defense, it was non scaled scientific setting
Show threadΨ*Ψ1d ago
@whitequark @iwein yeah I imagine most large scale industrial fabs are set up to recover that
Show threadiwein1d ago

@psistarpsiii you'd think that, but when recovery is more expensive than the new stuff, capitalism sez no.

@whitequark

Show threadΨ*Ψ1d ago
@iwein @whitequark fucking capitalism, burn it to the ground
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago
@psistarpsiii @iwein as best as i can tell, the capitalism is currently incentivizing fabs to conserve helium
Show threadiwein

@whitequark yup, but if we could burn it to the ground in favor of something more kind and intelligent, we could avoid a lot of waste and suffering, so no objections to that from my side 🙇‍♀️

@psistarpsiii

Apr 4 at 5:57pmWeb