[naruvimama]

I have personal experience having been in a low end research fab. The bunny suits and the protocols are elaborate. It was only for few hours and it was quite uncomfortable, hard to see or get a sense of things around you.

Regular users would generally stay for several hours to make it worth it. No break, water, toilet or food, probably come in with an empty bladder and empty stomach and stay the whole day.

From what I have read, it requires specialised training and intermediate if not advanced level skills and relatively high level of education. You work on the same machines for years and they pay is not necessarily that high compared to the trouble that you put in.

In fact, even in Taiwan the challenge is that people often switch to chip design or software instead. This definitely gets harder as people age.