Originally posted by mixtec
ageorge- I recall explaining how to upload pics on this forum to you because you said you were hardly able to operate a tv remote. And now you say you design computer chips for one of Japans largest electronics companys? So I quess you could design a tv remote and you wouldnt be able to work it. Im curious, did you work in Japan with Japaneese engineers or does NEC have some subsidiary in Scotland?

Hi Mixtec , NEC had 2 wafer fabrication plants in Scotland and an assembly plant , the first fab only made up to 4meg chips then was mothballed when Fab 2 opened , this made the 64 meg chips , I worked there from June 1991 till Jan 2000 , at the start there was a lot of Japanese engineers but as people were trained the Japanese were allowed to rotate back home . I would like to point out that I did not say that I designed IC’s – I worked in a lot of the manufacturing processes though – especially towards the assembly end , wafer dice , wafer mount , gold wire bonding etc . I also spent some time in the PYW area , it was a good job but as it was becoming easier to manufacture reliable IC’s the labour costs in Scotland made the plant unviable and I left before it closed , it’s still mothballed and could , technically , be restarted but the cheap labour costs in the Far East pretty much rule this out , the NEC Wafer Fab in Shanghai is a carbon copy of the Livingston plant and it is still running.

Neilly , your Mossie looks like a beauty , any chance of posting more photo’s of her . I would love to be able to build something like that . Der has kindly given me a Piper Cub trainer and my brother and I have fitted her out with new servos etc , Der has an absolute cracker of a Spitfire – if it was mine I would be too afraid to fly her !!! . How long has the Mossie taken you to build so far ??? , what size of engines doe’s she have.

I had the misfortune to spend a month in St Johns Hospital (Livingston) last year and was pleasantly surprised by the menu and general level of care , definately no complaints here .

The physical amount of layers is not a problem , just as I left NEC we were producing 64 meg chips with more than 120 layers all using the relatively old technology of I/I , sputter , dry etch ,wet etch and epitaxial growth ( spun layers) . The only real problem we had was that when the chips were resin enclosed the fact that the silicon substrate expanded at a different rate than the resin itself , this dissimilar expansion caused chip cracks over very small temperature differences – however this is only with memory , when it comes to processors the heat created by the different substrates – dissimilar expansion again – causes problems which is why they need heatsinks , fans etc.

Originally posted by kev35
Alastair.

Should you feel an urgent need to buy a future copy of flypast, I’m sure WH Smith would be able to obtain a copy for you as a special order. (At least they did when I last worked for them 13 years ago.)

Regards,

kev35

Thanks Kev , If Flypast has any up to date news in the future , anything less than 3 months old , could somebody drop me a mail and I’ll go buy a copy , hell I might even drive the 5 miles to Livingston to get a copy .

Anybody read “Storm of Steel” a WWI biography by Ernst Junger , excellent book.

Sven Hassel , although only the first 2-3 books were written by him , supposedly after he snuffed it the rest were literally ghost-written , hard to track down who’s telling the truth though.