Semiconducting materials like silicon carbide have the potential to contribute to the evolution of renewable energy, and enable better-performing electric vehicles, power conversion systems, communication infrastructure and more.
Often manufactured as small, incredibly powerful wafers, our client needed an equally advanced facility to allow its complex fabrication activities to come together on a dedicated campus — and they needed the site up and running quickly, without any existing infrastructure in place.
Understanding that a unified team and tight coordination would be key to success, our firm presented a team of diverse professionals to design and deliver the complex project, with in-house architecture and process architecture, civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection engineering, building technology services and more all coming together to accelerate the construction of the campus.
An exercise in utility
The project consisted of three main areas: a manufacturing facility, administration building and central utility building (CUB). Several satellite buildings included a main guardhouse, water reclamation and acid waste neutralization buildings and a site fire pump house.
In addition to fast-track construction, shaping the future of semiconductors is not without infrastructure challenges. All utilities, including water, power, sewer and roadways, needed to be brought to the site. Water accessibility, a key concern in semiconductor manufacturing, was mitigated by our engineers, who designed a system that reduces water demand through extensive water reclamation and reconditioning as well as careful configuration of the cooling towers.
In the collaboration zone
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is a construction delivery method where key design, fabrication and construction partners are joined together under a single agreement. This method creates cohesion early on and supports ongoing communication and collaboration throughout the project’s phases.
Coordination at this level requires creativity. Here, we included installation of our Digital Collaboration Zone onsite, a 100" touchscreen used in tandem with Revizto, which created a mini-IMAX experience that showed the project on an immersive scale. This technology fostered open discussions within the design and delivery teams with the goal of improving technical reviews and minimizing change orders with real-time problem solving.
IPD was a critical component for keeping our large team moving toward the same goals on a compressed 36-month schedule, and the campus stands as an example of coordination best practices for successful outcomes.
