Circuit Break Podcast #382

The Danger Pool

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June 9, 2023, Episode #382

The CHIPS act is in full swing with Texas Instruments, TSMC, Intel and other chip manufacturers scaling up and building new facilities in the United States. There is just one problem however, the engineering manpower required to run these high tech facilities. TSMC is struggling to fill quotas. Stephen and Parker explore the possible reasons for this on this week’s episode of the MacroFab Engineering Podcast.

Chipmaker TSMC needs to hire 4,500 Americans at its new Arizona plants.

  • We touched on this in the past with the chip act. 668,000 domestic manufacturing jobs for the chips act on Episode #345 - The Hot List of Tasty Chip Fabs
  • TSMC says it will hire 4,500 new workers to support its two Arizona fabs, a sizable chunk of the total new jobs created. So far TSMC has hired ~2000 but say it is tough to hire.
  • Compensation and hiring
    • TSMC pays up to $160,000 annually for Ph.D.s with some good experience where that same Ph.D. can earn some $30,000 more at Intel
    • Intel is giving raises of $10K - $20K over TSMC offers to stay.
  • More students in STEM in Taiwan vs US : 31% compared to 17.5%

Apple launches Vision Pro AR headset to ship next year

  • $3500 When the VR industry is getting less expensive and in a hardware purchasing decline?
  • Pro price but no pro applications?

The Danger Pool

  • What would it take to make a “solder pot”
  • Simple calculations
    • 60/40 specific heat = 0.173 J/g-C
    • 60/40 melting temp = 190c
    • Energy to raise temp -> specific heat equation
    • Energy to raise 5kg temp by 165C = 142.7 kJ
    • Enthalpy of fusion = 37J/g
    • Energy needed to “melt” = 185kJ
    • Total Energy = 327 kJ
  • Joule is W.s
  • If we wanted to deliver this much power in 30 minutes
  • 182 Watts
  • Kitchen stove burner
    • Small ~1200W
    • Medium ~1500 to 1800W
    • Large ~2500W
  • 500mm x 175mm size
MEP SQ 382

MEP SQ 382

About the Hosts

Parker Dillmann
  Parker Dillmann

Parker is an Electrical Engineer with backgrounds in Embedded System Design and Digital Signal Processing. He got his start in 2005 by hacking Nintendo consoles into portable gaming units. The following year he designed and produced an Atari 2600 video mod to allow the Atari to display a crisp, RF fuzz free picture on newer TVs. Over a thousand Atari video mods where produced by Parker from 2006 to 2011 and the mod is still made by other enthusiasts in the Atari community.

In 2006, Parker enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin as a Petroleum Engineer. After realizing electronics was his passion he switched majors in 2007 to Electrical and Computer Engineering. Following his previous background in making the Atari 2600 video mod, Parker decided to take more board layout classes and circuit design classes. Other areas of study include robotics, microcontroller theory and design, FPGA development with VHDL and Verilog, and image and signal processing with DSPs. In 2010, Parker won a Ti sponsored Launchpad programming and design contest that was held by the IEEE CS chapter at the University. Parker graduated with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Spring of 2012.

In the Summer of 2012, Parker was hired on as an Electrical Engineer at Dynamic Perception to design and prototype new electronic products. Here, Parker learned about full product development cycles and honed his board layout skills. Seeing the difficulties in managing operations and FCC/CE compliance testing, Parker thought there had to be a better way for small electronic companies to get their product out in customer's hands.

Parker also runs the blog, longhornengineer.com, where he posts his personal projects, technical guides, and appnotes about board layout design and components.

Stephen Kraig
  Stephen Kraig

Stephen Kraig is a component engineer working in the aerospace industry. He has applied his electrical engineering knowledge in a variety of contexts previously, including oil and gas, contract manufacturing, audio electronic repair, and synthesizer design. A graduate of Texas A&M, Stephen has lived his adult life in the Houston, TX, and Denver, CO, areas.

Stephen has never said no to a project. From building guitar amps (starting when he was 17) to designing and building his own CNC table to fine-tuning the mineral composition of the water he uses to brew beer, he thrives on testing, experimentation, and problem-solving. Tune into the podcast to learn more about the wacky stuff Stephen gets up to.

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro!

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