Semiconductor Giants Partner with Imec to Reduce IC Manufacturing's Environmental Impact

According to foreign media reports, the three major giants in the semiconductor industry, TSMC, Samsung, and GlobalFoundries, have recently joined Imec's Sustainable Semiconductor Technology and Systems (SSTS) research program. Lars-Åke Ragnarsson, the head of the SSTS project, stated that these three leading chip manufacturers, along with existing SSTS members such as Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, will collaborate to "assess the environmental impact of semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturing."

Ragnarsson emphasized that 75% of the environmental impact of mobile devices is related to the manufacturing process, with over 37% being associated with integrated circuit manufacturing, which is a crucial aspect.

In order to accurately assess the industry's environmental impact, Ragnarsson mentioned that Imec needs access to detailed information from major foundries and their proprietary secrets: "We need the fabs to tell us, guide us, and benchmark our results so that we can provide high-value information to all other partners."

Participation of wafer fabs in SSTS is essential not only for logic technology but also for memory technology, both of which are included in the research domain list of this program. "Comparing the results of [SSTS] with their results and putting them together for benchmarking is crucial."

Ragnarsson explained that the first pillar of the SSTS project is evaluation, focusing on measuring the environmental impact of IC manufacturing. The second pillar is improvement, which involves defining the project based on lessons learned from evaluation and other aspects in order to meaningfully reduce the negative impact and carbon emissions of semiconductor manufacturing and operations.

The third pillar is transformation, taking a "more holistic view" of the integrated circuit ecosystem to identify what types of innovation and non-mainstream manufacturing processes can significantly reduce the environmental impact. Lastly, Imec is dedicated to enabling policymakers and their partners to understand the IC industry's contribution to climate change.

"So far, our strongest aspect has clearly been evaluation. Improvement is growing a lot now, but there is still a lack of evaluation, and that is where Imec can play a role because we have a good understanding of how the technology is manufactured. With this knowledge, we can have a bottom-up understanding of environmental impact."

Although Intel is currently not involved in SSTS and has not shared its intention to join the research program, an Intel spokesperson responded by stating that the company is "participating in several industry alliances that are driving semiconductor manufacturing towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions" and that "we welcome all industry groups' efforts toward achieving this mission."