Posco Huls Silicon Wafer Manufacturing Facility - Engineering & Construction

Historic Project: Groundbreaking Work From Earlier in Fluor’s History

Client: Posco Huls Company Ltd. (now MEMC Korea Co.)

Location: Chonan, South Korea

Business Segment: Urban Solutions

Industry: Technology

Map showing the location of Posco Huls Silicon Wafer Manufacturing Facility - Engineering & Construction

Executive Summary

A Fluor-led joint venture provided a state-of-the-art silicon wafer manufacturing plant to Posco Huls Company Ltd. (now MEMC Korea Co.), in Chonan, Korea.

The Fluor JV provided conceptual and process design, detailed engineering, procurement and construction assistance on the project. The scope of work included the design and development of high-purity gas and chemical piping and DI water systems in addition to waste utility piping. The facility contains 8,000 s.f. of Class 1, 10 and 100 cleanrooms and 50,000 s.f. of Class 10,000 contamination control space.

The Fluor JV successfully completed startup and commercial production of the 150,000 s.f. silicon wafer facility in 1993.

Client's Challenge

To meet growing demand for silicon wafers, Posco Huls contracted to build a grass-roots silicon wafer manufacturing plant in Chonan, Korea. The company would need the expertise of a company experienced in constructing facilities for the microelectronics industry and require a local Korean firm to provide other support services.

Fluor's Solution

Fluor's experience in Korea began in 1964 with the construction of the first oil refinery in Ulsan, Korea. Twenty-eight years later, Fluor was called up to team with a local Korean firm to build a state-of-the-art silicon wafer manufacturing facility in Chonan.

The Fluor joint venture provided design, detailed engineering, procurement and construction assistance on the project. Our design engineers were also responsible for the preliminary design of the waste water treatment plant. Detailed plant engineering was completed by our Seoul office, with support by Fluor offices in Irvine, California, and Greenville, South Carolina.

Conclusion

The Fluor joint venture successfully completed the project for Posco Huls and began the first of many projects executed jointly in Korea.

We trained many Korean JV professionals in our operational procedures, including training in the United States.

Members of the Korean-based engineering staff also went to the field during construction, providing them with invaluable experience in seeing a project through to completion.