https://www.techpowerup.com/305010/sk-hynix-asking-sk-trichem-for-damages-over-damage-to-dram-production-line-due-to-impurities-in-materials
 
SK Hynix ran into issues earlier this month at one of its DRAM production fabs, due to impurities in zirconium high-k materials used in the production. The materials were supplied by SK Trichem and due to the impurities, the equipment at SK Hynix fab ended up leading to increased pressure in some of the manufacturing equipment and forced the production to be shut down. All the equipment at the fab had to be cleaned and some even replaced due to the impurities in the material.

The zirconium high-k material is deposited at the atomic level, atop the capacitors of the DRAM, as a precursor. Any impurities in such a material would lead to failed DRAM chips, but apparently there was no damage to the production in this case, according to SK Hynix. The company will be ordering replacement material from two other suppliers for the time being and SK Trichem should be supplying a fresh batch by the end of the month.
 
Hopefully this situation can be solved quickly. 
 
 

ty_ger07
There were impurities but no DRAM was damaged.... right. They probably think that the product damage is negligible and are willing to accept a higher failure rate rather than the cost of a total recall.

Saw a lot of posts like this on reddit... it's entirely possible the chemicals used can damage the equipment without harming the wafer production. Not everything used in semiconductor manufacturing touches the wafer. It's entirely possible some of the chemicals and gasses can corrode or increase wear on fab equipment. As long as the problems are detected before the equipment itself starts to fail then it wouldn't have a chance to affect yields.