Sustainability Roundtable: Catalyzing Innovation in Water Management via Data and SEMI Standards

A discussion about semiconductor facilities’ environmental footprint in relation to water consumption, energy usage, and site selection considerations.

Enabling Advanced Semiconductor Yield via Proactive Technology Management - an overview of the IRDS research work and future roadmap, as well as SEMI standard and future focus areas.

A study on how back grinding and dicing waste water are good low-hanging fruit candidates for short circuit reclaim or at least raw water substitution. Both approaches keep the water body within the fab and have huge cost benefit over simple discharge of the highly valuable permeate.

The semiconductor industry has increasingly ambitious sustainability goals. Eco efficiency goals are sometimes difficult to achieve in tandem with each other. For example, high water recovery requires more energy and chemicals. Additional energy also requires more evaporation water in the cooling towers. A modelling tool will be introduced to study scenarios to keep water and energy efficiency in balance and what impact it has on other boundary conditions. Improvements will require a different mindset in the future since potential solutions are multi-disciplinary and require cooperation of many different stake holders in the fab.

This presentation delivers considerations for water management decisions and modelling software to drive decisions for facility needs.

Unprecedented demand for semiconductor products is compelling the construction of larger, more complex facilities which consume increasing quantities of energy and water.

Roundtable event opening remarks at February Community Event

This presentation was given as part of the Ultrapure Micro 2021 annual conference. It was given as part of the ultrapure water strand.

The complexity of integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing for advanced nodes, paired with the growing demand for higher yields and lower defectivity, requires close alignment among industry stakeholders. New systematic improvements of system design, material choice and quality assurance methodologies are needed to minimise every possible source of contamination and variation in the manufacturing process. An extensive collaborative effort between SEMI Standards Task Forces and IRDS roadmap teams, representing the IC manufacturing supply chain, is focused on developing industry best practices to enable proactive yield management. As a result, relevant SEMI Standards are being revised to focus on the quality of UPW and liquid chemicals, design and operation of related systems, qualification of polymer assemblies and process critical materials and components. This article was originally published in the Ultrapure Micro Journal in March 2019.

This article provides an overview of the biggest challenge of UPW technology – particle control. The latest semiconductor technologies require near particle-free water, where the “killer” particle size is far below the size that UPW metrology can effectively detect. Also, current advanced treatment methods cannot guarantee reliable removal of killer-sized particles. The quality of the high-purity materials used downstream of the final filters has not typically been tested for shedding of the “killer” particles. Consequently, the semiconductor industry requires a comprehensive approach for the particle control. A new approach should include mitigating particle occurrence and continuously improving the technologies used in UPW polish and distribution systems. Such an approach should also include extensive use of SEMI standards to improve the quality of the materials used; a new way to engineer solutions related to system-configuration and system design; improved process control; and a careful review of critical operational decisions. Collaboration throughout the industry via IRDS and SEMI Standards is key to enabling such systematic improvement, and overcoming the metrology and other constraints. This article was originally published in the Ultrapure Micro Journal in November 2017.