Mike Yurconic, Intel Technology Development EHS, Hillsboro, Oregon 

ABSTRACT 

In the mid-1980s, Intel documented its Design for EHS philosophy for process tools and developed a set of internal design requirements with which suppliers must comply.  After Sematech’s industry-wide guidelines became available, Design for EHS evolved into the New Equipment Procurement Process (NEPP). The major element of the NEPP requirements is tool conformance to SEMI S2, Environmental, Health and Safety Guideline for Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment and SEMI S8, Safety Guidelines for Ergonomics/Human Factors Engineering of Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment.  Tool suppliers are required to provide copies of the SEMI S2/S8 reports for all first-of-a-kind tools purchased by Intel-to-Intel EHS with the expectation of 100% conformance.  NEPP has been extremely successful, reducing the number of design-related EHS issues associated with the installation and operation of process tools in Intel fabs virtually to zero.