A Fab Project
by K. Robert Wendel

The next step in the silicon revolution is under way at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, where contractors are erecting three new buildings to provide cutting edge technology for the U.S. government.

General contractor M.A. Mortenson of Texas started work in June on the first building in the Microsystems Engineering Sciences Application program, or MESA. The 98,000-sq.-ft., $80 million total cost project will provide clean rooms to replace those in an older fab at Sandia. It will tie into the existing fab, which will see some renovations.

The second project, a 131,000-sq.-ft. micro-lab, started in November, with Texas-based Hensel Phelps Construction >> moving earth on the $66 million total cost project. The third building, a weapons integration facility, is expected for bidding in July. The 162,000-sq.-ft. project is expected to cost $89 million in total.

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The project is the largest capital program ever undertaken at Sandia, with plans for a 2007 program completion.

"This is one of the largest investments in the free world in the micro-technology area," said William Jenkins, Sandia National Lab project manager. "This is also a major investment for national defense."

The Sandia National Labs are responsible for the design and maintenance of 90 percent of the several thousand parts in any given weapons system.

All three projects are being constructed in a sustainable manner under Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design guidelines. The owners hope to achieve a "silver" rating.

The micro-fab project is essentially a small, research and development production line to create silicon and compound semi conductors. One of the applications for the chips made in the lab is to detect when chemical agents are deployed.

Because of the extremely tight tolerances required in chip production, vibration control was a key issue. The $80 million fab project sits on a 40-in. matt slab with the grade floor on 36-in. waffle slab surrounded by a steel frame. More than 10,000 cu. yds of concrete with a fly-ash mix will be used. Another 2,100 tons of steel is used in the frame.

Designers are relying heavily on concrete to create the vibration-free buildings, with steel frames used in places where vibration control was not an issue. Like other fabrication plants, the project employs a large clear-span space at 102 ft., with a fan deck above the fab that provides the mechanical requirements.

"All three buildings had strict vibration criteria," said Lisa Webster, a project manager with Albuquerque's Chaves Grieves Consulting Engineers. "In the parts that don't have the vibration requirements, we used steel, which is more economical."

Designers faced several problems when drawing up the plans. One was designing a building for high-tech production tools that don't even exist yet. Designers needed to maintain flexibility for future technologies that are yet to be developed.

"One of the biggest challenges was providing a balanced response to the plethora of technical requirements that are out there," said Paul Maute, a project manager for the Texas office of Carter Burgess, the architect and mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer on all three buildings.

"Providing the final infrastructure with the flexibility to accommodate changes in the market and the technology has been difficult. You have to have some real conceptual engineers to design for equipment that doesn't exist yet."

Dallas-based M.W. Zander designed the ISO Class 4 (class 10) 16,000-sq.-ft. clean room in the micro fab building.

Working next to the old microchip fabrication plant was another challenge facing contractors. When moving earth or compacting soil, crews often had to work around the schedule of the nearby operating fab.

"Working next to an operating fab always presents problems," said Kelly Davis, a senior project manager for M.A. Mortenson. "There were a lot of restrictions against vibration, so that complicated our compaction efforts."

In addition to the three buildings, contractors are also constructing two CUBs, or central utility buildings. The CUBs function as utility suppliers to the three projects.
Crews will also upgrade a deionization water plant and a high efficiency reverse osmosis plant to filter out chemicals used in the manufacturing process. When the project is completed, the fab will use the same amount of water, but with 50 percent more production capacity.

"They use a lot of nasty stuff, but by the time it goes through the system, it's abated, said Jim Beals, Sandia project manager. "Everything is scrubbed or chemically treated."

The micro-lab is composed of chemical, electrical and laser labs, along with an education and design center. The lab will provide space for more than 270 researchers for developing, prototyping and testing micro-system components.

In the Weapons Integration Facility, the building is designed with a classified and unclassified area. The classified wing features a virtual interactive environment workspace, visualization lab, electrical and laser labs and offices for more than 270 people.

The three buildings will be similar in design, but with differences denoting their uses.
Architects are aiming for a contemporary design in the project, which will become the south gateway to Sandia Labs.

"The intent is for the building to reflect what is going on inside," Maute said. "They use similar materials, but they don't look like identical twins, but rather members of the same family."

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