My conjecture: they already had their process dialed in at Asian fabs, hence no need to re-configure or tune the machinery at Arizona which could lower the yield for whatever reason (leading edge CMOS truly is finicky).
Or they bought a new, refined version of the equipment.
My conjecture: they already had their process dialed in at Asian fabs, hence no need to re-configure or tune the machinery at Arizona which could lower the yield for whatever reason (leading edge CMOS truly is finicky). Or they bought a new, refined version of the equipment.
Especially for heavily automated processes, "new factory is more efficient than old factory" doesn't sound very surprising.
I think it’s all about the water. I think the purity standard is higher than detectable, so perhaps Arizona deep wells have better quality?