Recently, due to the Belgian government raising the environmental emission standards for fluoride , the coolant manufacturing plant accounting for 80% of the global production capacity was ordered to "close indefinitely." The environmental pollution caused by semiconductor production has always been in conflict with the global low-carbon goal, and this indefinite shutdown is just an extreme microcosm of the conflict between semiconductor production and environmental protection.
High technology, high pollution?
The semiconductor industry is resource intensive in energy, water, chemicals and raw materials. During the manufacturing process, different types of emissions are produced, including greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and fluorinated compounds. The complex manufacturing process of semiconductors has led to the particularity of the semiconductor manufacturing industry. If the waste generated by its production lines is not properly processed, it will have an irreparable negative impact on the surrounding natural environment.
With the strong global demand for silicon chips, silicon chips are needed in various products such as smartphones, tablets, new energy vehicles and smart furniture. But now there is a paradox in the semiconductor industry: global environmental protection goals need to be achieved by relying on semiconductors, but the manufacturing of the chips themselves has caused environmental pollution.
Huge power consumption
The chip manufacturing industry is a huge resource-consuming industry. There are many chip manufacturing processes, from silicon wafer manufacturing, chip design, wafer manufacturing to packaging and testing. There are no less than one process required. There are thousands of steps, many of which have huge demand for electricity.
According to the "TSMC 2020 Climate-related Financial Disclosure Report" published by TSMC, in 2020, TSMC's electricity consumption was 16.9 billion kWh, an increase of 18% from 2019, exceeding the electricity consumption of the entire Taipei City. Taiwan's annual electricity consumption is 271 billion kilowatt-hours, which is equivalent to TSMC alone consuming nearly 6% of Taiwan's electricity. This number is expected to rise to 7.2% by 2022.
Taiwan, China, has made it clear that it will abandon nuclear power before 2025, and its only options for power generation are coal power and gas power. Under the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20% in 2030 and reducing emissions by 50% in 2050, Taiwan Electric Power Company of China is building coal-fired power plants. The generator set has also been subject to complaints from the public about pollution.
Water-swallowing monster
Semiconductor products require a large amount of water during the manufacturing process. In particular, ultrapure water (Ultrapure water) is used in semiconductor manufacturing. The process of making ultrapure water requires several times the amount of tap water, and the water consumption is quite alarming. .
How much water is needed for semiconductor production? Data shows that in a 200mm wafer fab with a monthly production capacity of 40,000 wafers, about 8,000 to 10,000 tons of water are used a day, 70% of which is used to generate ultrapure water. But with the 16nm and 7nm processes, a 12-inch wafer factory with the same production capacity of 40,000 pieces consumes about 20,000 tons of water every day.
TSMC Hsinchu , central and southern plant areas have daily water consumption of 57,000 tons, 54,000 tons and 82,000 tons respectively. Although TSMC has achieved an 86% wastewater recycling rate and can reuse an average of 3-4 times per liter of water, it still consumes huge amounts of water. In 2020, TSMC consumed about 70 million tons of water, and in 2021, Taiwan, China, suffered the worst drought in half a century. In order to preserve the semiconductor industry, which is a "big water user", Taiwan, China, has taken various measures, such as pumping groundwater, leaving a large amount of farmland fallow and stopping irrigation. Since then, TSMC's water use issue has become a controversial topic - chip manufacturers and farmers compete for water resources. .
Waste emissions
In the United States, Intel's 700-acre campus in Ocotillo, Arizona, generated nearly 15,000 tons of waste in the first three months of last year, about 60 percent of which was hazardous. It also consumes 927 million gallons of fresh water, enough to fill approximately 1,400 Olympic swimming pools, and uses 561 million kilowatt hours of energy.
Harvard researcher Udit Gupta and co-authors wrote in a 2020 paper that "chip manufacturing accounts for the majority of carbon emissions from electronic devices, not energy consumption or hardware usage. Recently, due to the Belgian government raising the environmental emission standards for fluoride , the coolant manufacturing plant accounting for 80% of the global production capacity was ordered to "close indefinitely." The environmental pollution caused by semiconductor production has always been in conflict with the global low-carbon goal, and this indefinite shutdown is just an extreme microcosm of the conflict between semiconductor production and environmental protection. The semiconductor industry is resource intensive in energy, water, chemicals and raw materials. During the manufacturing process, different types of emissions are produced, including greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and fluorinated compounds. The complex manufacturing process of semiconductors has led to the particularity of the semiconductor manufacturing industry. If the waste generated by its production lines is not properly processed, it will have an irreparable negative impact on the surrounding natural environment. With the strong global demand for silicon chips, silicon chips are needed in various products such as smartphones, tablets, new energy vehicles and smart furniture. But now there is a paradox in the semiconductor industry: global environmental protection goals need to be achieved by relying on semiconductors, but the manufacturing of the chips themselves has caused environmental pollution. Huge power consumption The chip manufacturing industry is a huge resource-consuming industry. There are many chip manufacturing processes, from silicon wafer manufacturing, chip design, wafer manufacturing to packaging and testing. There are no less than one process required. There are thousands of steps, many of which have huge demand for electricity. According to the "TSMC 2020 Climate-related Financial Disclosure Report" published by TSMC, in 2020, TSMC's electricity consumption was 16.9 billion kWh, an increase of 18% from 2019, exceeding the electricity consumption of the entire Taipei City. Taiwan's annual electricity consumption is 271 billion kilowatt-hours, which is equivalent to TSMC alone consuming nearly 6% of Taiwan's electricity. This number is expected to rise to 7.2% by 2022. Taiwan, China, has made it clear that it will abandon nuclear power before 2025, and its only options for power generation are coal power and gas power. Under the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20% in 2030 and reducing emissions by 50% in 2050, Taiwan Electric Power Company of China is building coal-fired power plants. The generator set has also been subject to complaints from the public about pollution. Water-swallowing monster Semiconductor products require a large amount of water during the manufacturing process. In particular, ultrapure water (Ultrapure water) is used in semiconductor manufacturing. The process of making ultrapure water requires several times the amount of tap water, and the water consumption is quite alarming. . How much water is needed for semiconductor production? Data shows that in a 200mm wafer fab with a monthly production capacity of 40,000 wafers, about 8,000 to 10,000 tons of water are used a day, 70% of which is used to generate ultrapure water. But with the 16nm and 7nm processes, a 12-inch wafer factory with the same production capacity of 40,000 pieces consumes about 20,000 tons of water every day. TSMC Hsinchu , central and southern plant areas have daily water consumption of 57,000 tons, 54,000 tons and 82,000 tons respectively. Although TSMC has achieved an 86% wastewater recycling rate and can reuse an average of 3-4 times per liter of water, it still consumes huge amounts of water. In 2020, TSMC consumed about 70 million tons of water, and in 2021, Taiwan, China, suffered the worst drought in half a century. In order to preserve the semiconductor industry, which is a "big water user", Taiwan, China, has taken various measures, such as pumping groundwater, leaving a large amount of farmland fallow and stopping irrigation. Since then, TSMC's water use issue has become a controversial topic - chip manufacturers and farmers compete for water resources. . Waste emissions In the United States, Intel's 700-acre campus in Ocotillo, Arizona, generated nearly 15,000 tons of waste in the first three months of last year, about 60 percent of which was hazardous. It also consumes 927 million gallons of fresh water, enough to fill approximately 1,400 Olympic swimming pools, and uses 561 million kilowatt hours of energy. Harvard researcher Udit Gupta and co-authors wrote in a 2020 paper that "chip manufacturing accounts for the majority of carbon emissions from electronic devices, not energy consumption or hardware usage.” In recent years, countries and regions including the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and other countries have successively announced the time to achieve carbon neutrality. The EU and the United States both have goals to achieve net zero by 2030. Carbon emissions, achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. As the semiconductor industry grows, so will its carbon footprint. Intel has pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 2030. Obtaining 100% of its energy from renewable energy sources, Intel set a new environmental protection goal in 2017 - to achieve 100% recycling and reuse of its global water use by 2025, and has made certain progress Intel is steadily advancing towards this goal. 2020 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Target - By 2020, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 10% compared to 2010. TSMC has committed to obtain from renewable energy by 2050. 100% energy. TSMC made a commitment during the worst drought in Taiwan in more than 50 years and set a waste management strategy and goal—the amount of waste processed per 12-inch equivalent wafer mask layer outsourcing unit by 2030. ≤0.5 kg, that is, 400,000 tons/year. TSMC established an ESG Steering Committee, led by Chairman Liu Deyin and including multiple department executives, to be responsible for long-term sustainable development planning. The committee was established in 2020 and vowed to The company will achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 - that is, using 100% renewable energy in global operations. SK Hynix will use the Life Cycle Assessment system (Life Cycle Assessment, referred to as LCA) to evaluate and improve product performance. Water consumption and environmental impact throughout its life cycle. In 2021, SK hynix will strive to integrate the wastewater treated by some old wastewater treatment equipment into more advanced comprehensive wastewater treatment equipment to improve the quality of the discharged water. Currently, SK hynix controls the main water quality indicator in the legal standards - Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD for short) within 10% of the national standard (national standard 30mg/, company standard 2.4mg/), and We are still continuing to increase investment and maintenance efforts. Infineon , a world-renowned power semiconductor company , took the lead in pledging to achieve carbon neutrality in 2020 and set "binding emission reduction targets": to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2025 compared with 2019. , achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. Ye Tianchun, vice chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association and chairman of the Integrated Circuit Branch, said: "China's manufacturing industry is currently the largest in the world. As the world's factory, a large amount of energy is consumed, and there is room for strengthening resource management in every link." my country has successively issued two documents related to "double carbon", pointing out the direction of green and low-carbon development in the future, that is, carbon dioxide emissions will strive to peak in 2030 and strive to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060. This goal requires the joint efforts of all industries, including semiconductor companies. Life cycle assessment of future integrated circuits Reducing resource footprint may also ensure business continuity - for example, if scarce materials are involved - and may give the company a competitive advantage. Today, many companies rely on methods such as life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess a product's environmental impact, from material sourcing to end of life. LifeCycle Inventory (LCI) data models the carbon dioxide emissions generated during the material production cycle, from raw material extraction to delivery to final point of use. However, current LCA methods are far from accurate and complete, especially in integrated circuits. The latest published information on gas balance and energy flow used in chip manufacturing is for the 32nm technology node - the dominant technology of the 2010s. Performance, incorporating sustainability In 2018, Applied Materials Company launched the Center for Sustainability Design Excellence to lead the semiconductor industry in exploring cleaner, greener manufacturing methods. By creating digital models, new ideas can be applied to existing products. Simulates the energy and chemical usage during wafer processing and presents it in units of carbon dioxide emission equivalents. This gives a true and comprehensive view of the impact of our emissions reduction measures. In 2021, Samsung added a sustainability category to internal performance evaluations to motivate management and employees to fully implement sustainability requirements in various areas. As we continue to promote sustainable practices in various areas, we plan to develop and refine the sustainability category program to ensure fairness in evaluation and compensation. Third-party renewable energy producers In addition, for energy, we have to mention renewable energy, such as purchasing electricity from third-party renewable energy producers near the fab and using solar power installed inside the factory, etc. . Take STMicroelectronics' factory in Morocco as an example. There are many wind turbines installed there, which can currently provide 50% of the electricity for the entire factory, and the next goal is to increase this ratio to 90%. In addition, the largest private solar power generation equipment is built in the parking lot of the Moroccan factory to ensure the safe supply of renewable energy. Of course, renewable energy needs to be purchased from outside when necessary. Reuse and recycle Renewable energy is not only water and electricity, but also includes very important waste management strategies. The foundations of waste management strategies are reduce, reuse, recycle, eliminate and dispose. In fact, the semiconductor industry is an ecosystem. Sometimes the fab itself has done its best to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, but the maturity of its external stakeholders on this issue is actually not evenly distributed, so it requires cooperation within the entire ecosystem. Collaboration. Amid the global chip shortage, the chip industry not only faces huge manufacturing needs, but it is also very important to reduce carbon emissions and use renewable energy. On the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement, China announced to the world its national goal of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and striving to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. While semiconductors help reduce carbon emissions, we also pay attention to the semiconductor manufacturing process. Efforts are underway in different countries, focusing on scaling up operations while reducing emissions. High technology, high pollution?
Different companies have launched different environmental protection measures
How should semiconductors develop under the carbon neutral policy?
Pay equal attention to production and energy conservation
Performance, incorporating sustainability
In 2018, Applied Materials Company launched the Center for Sustainability Design Excellence to lead the semiconductor industry in exploring cleaner, greener manufacturing methods. By creating digital models, new ideas can be applied to existing products. Simulates the energy and chemical usage during wafer processing and presents it in units of carbon dioxide emission equivalents. This gives a true and comprehensive view of the impact of our emissions reduction measures.
In 2021, Samsung added a sustainability category to internal performance evaluations to motivate management and employees to fully implement sustainability requirements in various areas. As we continue to promote sustainable practices in various areas, we plan to develop and refine the sustainability category program to ensure fairness in evaluation and compensation.
Third-party renewable energy producers
In addition, for energy, we have to mention renewable energy, such as purchasing electricity from third-party renewable energy producers near the fab and using solar power installed inside the factory, etc. . Take STMicroelectronics' factory in Morocco as an example. There are many wind turbines installed there, which can currently provide 50% of the electricity for the entire factory, and the next goal is to increase this ratio to 90%. In addition, the largest private solar power generation equipment is built in the parking lot of the Moroccan factory to ensure the safe supply of renewable energy. Of course, renewable energy needs to be purchased from outside when necessary.
Reuse and recycle
Renewable energy is not only water and electricity, but also includes very important waste management strategies. The foundations of waste management strategies are reduce, reuse, recycle, eliminate and dispose. In fact, the semiconductor industry is an ecosystem. Sometimes the fab itself has done its best to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, but the maturity of its external stakeholders on this issue is actually not evenly distributed, so it requires cooperation within the entire ecosystem. Collaboration.
Pay equal attention to production and energy conservation
Amid the global chip shortage, the chip industry not only faces huge manufacturing needs, but it is also very important to reduce carbon emissions and use renewable energy. On the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement, China announced to the world its national goal of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and striving to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
While semiconductors help reduce carbon emissions, we also pay attention to the semiconductor manufacturing process. Efforts are underway in different countries, focusing on scaling up operations while reducing emissions.
