Abstract
Contemporary semiconductor manufacturing is characterized by the erasure ofthe boundary between research and produ ction, the arrangement that seeks to accommodate to the intricacy of chip making process and the rapidity of technology change. The rapidity of techno logy change in semiconductor manufacturing, frequently couched in terms of the so-called 'Moore's Law,' maintains at a speed that the number of transistors that can be put on an integrated circuit doubles everyone to two years. The indistinguishability between laboratory and factory, however, makes the allocation of the machine time-both for research and for production purposes- a prominent factor that shapes the temporal order of work in semiconductor fabs. This paper analyzes the temporal order of technicians' as well as engineers' work. Technicians are exempted from handling problems that arise in the production process, and their work is chara cterized by short, successive tasks in a predictable sequence- a 'monochronic' order. In contrast, due to the complexity of semiconductor manufacturing, engineers face problems that arise randomly, and are forced to undertake several tasks which last for various lengths of time simultaneously-their work is in a 'polychronic' order. With the machine time monopolized by the production department, difficulty in gaining access to the machine time for experimentation, the basis for both problem-solving and research work, contributes further to the polychronicity of engineers' work. In semiconductor fabs, miniaturization trend dictates the way machine time is allocated, which in turn leads to the long working hours of engineers.