When talking about semiconductor chip manufacturing plants, the spaces that produce, test and package these chips are commonly called “clean rooms”. Cleanliness is an aspect that is highly emphasized because any dirt at a microscopic level can cause the components being built to be damaged or not meet production standards.
Elon Musk, the owner of various technology companies such as X, xAI, Tesla, Starlink and others, reportedly wants to build his own processing chip manufacturing plant, and says that it can be done without putting too much emphasis on the clean room cleanliness aspect.
He said that Tesla will build their own 2nm chip manufacturing plant, and will prove that he can eat burgers and smoke cigarettes in the factory, and it will still be able to produce processing chips without problems.
Cleanliness in semiconductor factories is one of the aspects that is highly emphasized, and has its own ISO standard level depending on the type of semiconductor chip being produced.
For example, a clean room with ISO Class 1 standards can only have 10 particles of 0.1 µm in every 1 cubic meter of air, while a clean room with ISO Class 2 standards allows up to 100 particles of the same size in the same air environment.
For the production of semiconductor chips using the latest processes such as 2nm, ISO Class 1 and Class 2 standards will usually be required. Because of this, it is quite difficult to believe what Elon Musk says about the cleanliness clause in the factory.
Tesla may open their own semiconductor chip factory so that they can produce the components they need in the future, but if certain standards are not maintained, it is unknown how they will be able to produce their own chips.
