Cymer CSD-6 Office and Lab, SAN DIEGO, CA

Mechanical Construction, Design/Build & BIM Services

VALUE DELIVERED

Fast-track project completion; expert design/build process that minimized constructability issues; state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities; protection of the company’s technological leadership; improved building comfort and efficiency; higher productivity; operational continuity of corporate headquarters during major construction project.

MECHANICAL CONSTRUCTION OBJECTIVES

To renovate 50,000 square feet of mission-critical office and high-tech manufacturing facilities, and upgrade its commercial HVAC systems, all on a fast-track schedule without disrupting ongoing business activities.

MECHANICAL DESIGN/BUILD SOLUTIONS

To meet its challenging objectives, Cymer chose UMEC to provide the expert design/build solutions needed to rapidly renovate its HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), plumbing and industrial process piping systems.

The mechanical construction project focused on three critical areas of Cymer’s CSD-6 building. These consisted of 15,000 square feet of class 10K laboratory clean rooms, 35,000 square feet of office space, and a central HVAC plant, where UMEC installed a new 900-ton chiller and shutdown for future POCs. Since the fast-track schedule allowed UMEC only 60 days to complete the clean rooms and just another 45 days to finish the project, UMEC used a three-phase approach, starting with the clean rooms and supporting equipment, before moving on to the office space, and finally, the central plant.

Another issue was how to get the work done without disrupting company operations. To achieve this, the company used weekends for crane picks of large air-handling units. This involved lowering the dismantled equipment piece by piece through a roof hatch for in-place assembly. On the lab floor and in an addition to the existing gas room, UMEC also installed both single- and double-wall stainless steel piping for process gases.

In addition to having the resources and procedures necessary to finish this large volume of work in a short time, UMEC had the skills and experience required to carry out this complex mechanical/plumbing system installation within CSD-6’s highly constrained spaces. One key tool for meeting these challenges was UMEC’s advanced building information modeling (BIM) system on which the company created three-dimensional computer models of the project. The team used these models throughout the design/build stages to identify and resolve technical issues early, coordinate construction scheduling, exploit prefabrication opportunities, eliminate rework and optimize safety.

During the project, UMEC worked closely with the general contractor to orchestrate the large number of tradespeople working on the project. This allowed the company to maximize productivity, while effectively maintaining the schedule, controlling budgets, and providing the high-performance mechanical systems and services the client needs to maintain its technological leadership.

TECHNOLOGY FACILITY BACKGROUND

Cymer, Inc. is a leader in developing advanced lithographic light sources used to produce advanced semiconductor chips. The firm’s light sources have been widely adopted by the world’s top chipmakers, and the company’s installed base comprises more than 3,300 systems. The upgrades to Cymer’s CSD-6 building described here have enabled the company to continue pioneering the industry’s transition to extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the next viable step on the technology roadmap to creating smaller, faster chips.