Why Arizona for Semiconductor Plants?

choi

Latest news first, though (1) is obviously inspired by (2). I read (1) Yesterday, and accidentally found (2) today.

(1) Sam Shead, Why Intel and TSMC Are Building Water-Dependent Chip Factories in One of the Driest US States CNBC, June 4, 2021
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/ ... nts-in-arizona.html

Note:
(a) "Arizona received just 13.6 inches of rainfall on average per year between 1970 and 2000, according to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, making it the fourth driest state nationwide. Conversely, Hawaii and Louisiana recorded the highest levels of average yearly precipitation in the US over the same time frame, reporting 63.7 inches and 60.1 inches, respectively."
(i) 13.6 inches = 34.5 cm
(ii) Why "between 1970 and 2000"?  We are in 2021. In fact, it is "between 1971 and 2000."  The reason is the answer comes from

Answers archive: Weather extremes. Glen Allen Weather (Glen Allen os a place in Henrico County, Virginia), undated
http://www.glenallenweather.com/ex9/answersarchive.pdf
("Q: Which state has the least amount of precipitation? The most? How is this figured?
A: Nevada is the driest state with an average of 9.5 inches of precipitation each year. Hawaii is the wettest state with an annual average of 63.7 inches, followed by Louisiana with 60.1 inches. These amounts are based on averages of station measurements available in each state during
the period 1971-2000.
Check out the National Climatic Data Center for more historic climate data.
(Answered by Anne Waple, research climatologist with NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC, January 10, 2006.) ")
(A) I myself check NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) datasets, and find no such category ready for public consumption. So the average annual precipitation data -- NCDC does not use "rainfall," likely with a good reason: precipitation includes both snow and rain -- must be somehow synthesized.
(B) National Climatic Data Center
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Climatic_Data_Center
("previously known as the National Weather Records Center (NWRC), in Asheville, North Carolina) ")
(iii) Average Annual Precipitation by State. Current Results; Weather and science facts, undated
https://www.currentresults.com/W ... e-precipitation.php
("The states are also ranked from the wettest state at number 1, to the driest state at number 50. * * * For the entire United States, excluding Hawaii and Alaska, the average amount of moisture falling as rain and snow is 30.21 inches (767 millimetres).  The precipitation averages are based on data collected by weather stations throughout each state from 1971 to 2000 and provided by the NOAA National Climatic Data Center")

The top ten driest states (1971-2000) were Nevada > Utah > Wyoming > Arizona > New Mexico > Montana > Colorado > North Dakota > Idaho > South Dakota.  
They are mostly Mountain states.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_states
(iv) For the large picture, see the top map in United States rainfall climatology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_rainfall_climatology

(b) "Intel has had a presence in Arizona for over 40 years * * * Intel now employs over 12,000 people in Arizona and the state is home to Intel's newest manufacturing facility, Fab 42. * * * Its [Arizon's] seismic stability * * * That said, Intel does have some chip plants on the West Coast of the US, where the ground is more susceptible to earthquakes. The company has a huge presence in Hillsboro, Oregon, for example.  " 'The West Coast does have fabs but they need to take great measures to isolate the shaking,' said O’Donnell. 'They don't need such drastic measures in Arizona because it shakes a lot less.' "
(i)
(A) San Andreas Fault
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Andreas_Fault
("extends roughly 1,200 kilometers (750 mi) through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate [click to see the large picture only] and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal). * * * The fault was identified in 1895 by Professor Andrew Lawson of UC Berkeley, who discovered the northern zone. It is often described as having been named after San Andreas Lake [click and check out the new Wiki page, at section 1 History: 'feast day of St Andrew'], a small body of water that was formed in a valley between the two plates. However, according to some of his reports from 1895 and 1908, Lawson actually named it after the surrounding San Andreas Valley. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Lawson concluded that the fault extended all the way into southern California")
(B) For "right-lateral strike-slip," see Earthquake Glossary. USGS, undated

First with the term
"strike-slip": "Strike-slip faults are vertical (or nearly vertical) fractures where the blocks have mostly moved horizontally. If the block opposite an observer looking across the fault moves to the right, the slip style is termed right lateral; if the block moves to the left, the motion is termed left lateral."
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/glossary/?term=strike-slip
About the last sentence of the quotation: It does not matter which side of the fault the observer is, because displacement is the same on either side.

Then check out
• under S: strike, slip
• under D: dip, dip slip (also explains "normal" and "thrust" introduced in "strike-slip" above)
(ii) the large picture of San Andrea Fault:

New Information About the San Andreas Fault. United States Geological Survey (USGS), United States Department of the Interior, undated
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/eart ... f/18april/paleo.php
("The 1906 earthquake was accompanied by nearly 300 miles of surface rupture along the San Andreas Fault between San Juan Bautista and Shelter Cove. On the surface, the maximum measured displacement was about 21 feet, near Olema. The fault moved in a fashion that geologists of the time did not expect: it moved horizontally, the southwestern side slipping to the northwest, relative to the southeastern side. The offsets measured across the fault in other locations were smaller than the offset near Olema. Near Point Arena it was about 15 feet. South of San Francisco, it was about 9 feet, and dropped off to the southeast [decreased southeast of San Francisco] ")
(A) San Juan Bautista, California
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_Bautista,_California
(maps)

• Spanish-English dictionary:
* baustista (noun masculine; from Latin baptista, from Ancient Greek baptistḗs): "baptist (person who baptizes)"  
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bautista
(B) Shelter Cove, California
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelter_Cove,_California
(in Humboldt County)

is 200 miles north of San Francisco and 70 miles south of Eureka, California
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka,_California
("is the principal city and county seat of Humboldt County in the Redwood Empire region of California")
(C) Olema, California
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olema,_California
(D) English dictionary:
* offset (n): "DISPLACEMENT"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/offset
(iii) Intel's Arizona site is in Chandler, Arizona
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler,_Arizona  
(a suburb of the Phoenix)

Innovating and Investing in Arizona for 40 Years. Intel, undated
https://www.intel.com/content/ww ... tel-in-arizona.html
("home to Intel's newest, leading-edge manufacturing facility, Fab 42, and state-of-the-art semiconductor packaging capabilities.  Intel has invested $30 billion in capital to build high-tech manufacturing capacity in Arizona, and Intel’s annual economic impact $8.6 billion * * * Our annual economic impact in Arizona is approximately $8.6 billion, based on 2019 data")
(iv) Hillsboro, Oregon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsboro,_Oregon
("The European-American community was founded by David Hill, Isaiah Kelsey, and Richard Williams, who arrived in the Tualatin Valley in 1841 * * * [The place] was named 'Hillsborough' in February 1850 in honor of Hill")
is ten-mile air distance west of Portland (largest city in Portland, whose capital is Salem (also nearby) ).
(v) Japan is wedged among, and at the mercy of, four major tectonic plates. See plate tectonics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

English dictionary:
* tectonics (n): "a branch of geology concerned with the structure of the crust of a planet (such as the earth) or moon and especially with the formation of folds and faults in it"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tectonics
* tectonic (adj; History and Etymology)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tectonic
(vi) Taiwan is better off when compared to Japan. See geology of Taiwan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Taiwan  
("between the Yangtze Subplate of the Eurasian Plate to the west and north, the Okinawa Plate on the north-east, the Philippine Plate on the east and south, and the Sunda Plate to the southwest")

Click Yangtze Subplate and you will see a somewhat big picture, where Okinawa Plate (or Platelet, because it is small in size) share the same color with Philippine Plate. Click  Okinawa Plate, which shows different colors of the two.
(v) Sorry, I find nothing online about preparing semiconductor plant against the risk of an earthquake.

choi

(2) Yihfan Yu and Cheng Ting-fang, TSMC in Arizona: Why Taiwan's Chip Titan Is Betting on the Desert. Nikkei Asia, June 3, 2021.
Company's $12bn plant could benefit from ecosystem built by Intel and others

Quote:

" 'The two most important pieces of infrastructure for a wafer fab are electricity, and more electricity. * * *' said Bill Wiseman, a senior partner at McKinsey.

"Arizona is fourth in the U.S. for chipmaking employment

America's "attracting TSMC comes at a price. Building a chip facility in the US would be at least two and a half to three times more expensive than constructing one in Taiwan, chip industry executives estimated, which makes relocating to the country less economically appealing. That means incentives will be important.

"TSMC Chairman Liu told reporters last year that his company has requested 'subsidies and incentives support by the state and federal governments' to cover the higher costs of the US over Taiwan, and those incentives would be the key factors why TSMC could agree to build a new American plant. * * * Meanwhile, Intel has not received any incentives from the Arizona state government for its latest announced expansion.


(3)
(a) TSMC Says Has Begun Construction at Its Arizona Chip Factory Site. Reuters, June 1, 2021
https://www.reuters.com/technolo ... factory-2021-06-01/
("Speaking at the company's annual technology presentation to clients and investors, held online for the second straight year because of the pandemic, CEO CC Wei said the planned [12-billion] factory remains on track to start volume production of chips using the company's 5-nanometer production technology starting in 2024.  TSMC is expected to be one of several companies, including Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, competing for some of the $54 billion in subsides for the chip industry that advanced in the United States Senate last week.  Reuters previously reported that TSMC plans to build as many as six factories at the Arizona site over a 10- to 15-year span")
(b) "Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has purchased more than 1,100 acres of land bounded by 51st Avenue to I-17 and Loop 303 to State Route 74. TSMC has purchased this land to build a multibillion dollar semiconductor manufacturing facility that could eventually employ 1,600 people."  ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​North Phoenix Infrastructure. City of Phoenix, undated but before May 26, 2021.

However, the above quotation has been deleted from the Web page headlined "​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​North Phoenix Infrastructure," which now says only: "More than 1,100 acres of land bounded by 51st Avenue to I-17 and Loop 303 to State Route 74 is being readied for technology companies."
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