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A comment on American Chipmakers Had a Toxic Problem, Then They Outsourced It. Parent comment

Re:American Chipmakers Had a Toxic Problem, Then They Outsou... by cornchips on Thursday June 15, 2017 @10:10PM (#14566140)
Bead blast? Is that a type of abrasive blasting? Why? Some kind of annealing?
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Re:American Chipmakers Had a Toxic Problem, Then They Outsou... by sevensor on Friday June 16, 2017 @08:21AM (#14568257)
It's not for the wafers, it's for the equipment. Parts get coated up with various substances, and then have to get stripped back as part of regular maintenance. One of those substances is arsenic.
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Re:American Chipmakers Had a Toxic Problem, Then They Outsou... by Sanddancer on Friday June 16, 2017 @03:08AM (#14567155)
To sandblast the oxide layer off the GaS ingots.
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Re:American Chipmakers Had a Toxic Problem, Then They Outsou... by sevensor on Friday June 16, 2017 @08:19AM (#14568248)
Whoa there, cowboy. GaAs doesn't really make an oxide, and the last thing you want to do to an ingot is bead-blast it. You want to be in a room full of GaAs dust?
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