Renesas foundry hit by power outage caused by lightning

It would seem that of all semiconductor companies, mother nature has an axe to grind against Renesas with first fire and now a lightning strike. What exactly happened at the Renesas facility, what else has Renesas struggled with, and how does this show the need for foundries to have better backup facilities?

Renesas production temporarily halted by lightning

Recently, Renesas announced that one of its facilities in Kawashiri experienced a major power loss caused by a lightning storm. Despite having protective measures to ensure that power is never fully disrupted, the outage lasted longer than expected, and some portions of Renesa’s production line had to be scrapped. While checks on equipment continue to be made, Renesas expects that as much as two weeks of materials have been lost and will require one week of production time to catch up.

The lightning strike that knocked out the power originated from the recent Typhoon Aere that struck Kumamoto City. It was discovered that a lightning bolt struck a power line feeding the foundry, which caused a massive voltage spike while simultaneously damaging grid infrastructure. With the voltage supply, Renesas had no choice but to shut down 90% of its equipment to ensure that the most important equipment continued to operate.

What else has Renesas struggled with?

This is not the first disaster that Renesas has had to cope with in the past. Last year, Renesas experienced a fire that damaged its Naka foundry, which is responsible for producing 300mm wafers. In the same year, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 forced another facility to suspend operation, and several years before this, an earthquake struck yet another facility causing structural damage.

Japan is no stranger to natural disasters due to their proximity to the Pacific Ocean (famous for its typhoons) and the fact that Japan sits on the edge of a geologically active zone called the ring of fire. As such, most of Japan’s infrastructure is designed to handle devastating earthquakes, large floods, and wind speeds too fast to imagine. But even then, it is not possible to protect against every eventuality, and it appears that such events are becoming a greater occurrence.

However, this frequency of random acts of nature might only be gaining attention as they have affected semiconductor production, and this is something that the world simply cannot afford. The COVID pandemic of 2020 threw the world into chaos, and the resulting lockdowns trying to control the spread of the virus saw numerous industries close shop (especially the automotive industry). When lockdowns were lifted, the sudden demand for semiconductors that hadn’t been produced caused a massive shortage which is still being felt today.

Thus, any event that affects a semiconductor plant anywhere in the world may be more likely to grab media attention compared to times before COVID.

How does this event demonstrate the importance of backup systems?

Despite having lost two weeks’ worth of materials, Renesas has been able to recover from the incident and expects to restore full functionality shortly. While it is easy to point fingers and suggest that Renesas introduce better protection mechanisms, it should be appreciated that the size of foundries, the amount of power needed to keep them operational, and the required logistics make defending against unexpected events very challenging. Furthermore, it was already mentioned by the plant operators at Renesas that the downtime occurred for longer than ever experienced, meaning that Renesas does indeed have the capabilities to defend against temporary losses of power.

However, pressure on semiconductor foundries will continue to be high as customers see lead times as long as two years, and any faults in the manufacturing process will not be viewed positively. Furthermore, the delay to the Renesas facility also demonstrates the need for solid defences against unexpected events. If the importance of semiconductors continues to increase, then the resilience of foundries must also improve. 

One potential solution looking forward is to locate such facilities next to power stations with access to fresh water. Such a facility could have a dedicated line to a neighbouring power station that is never switched off, and access to freshwater facilities ensures that the foundry is always well supplied. Additionally, it may become prudent for foundries to hold large warehouses stocking up on additional raw materials and finished dies. An IC that isn’t diced and mounted in a package takes up far less space if left on a wafer, and thus a facility could easily store billions of devices in a relatively small size.