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.

Scott Stewart, Intel Corporation, Hilsboro, OR, USA

ABSTRACT

This article explores the challenge faced by semiconductor manufacturing facilities to reduce their environmental footprint and avoid regulatory constraints. Wafer fabs continue to increase in size and complexity, while regulatory emissions limits continue to shrink. The focus is on volatile organic compound emissions (VOCs), which pose the most likely constraining air permit limit. Areas covered include common air permit limits and requirements, analysis of VOC sources at a typical semiconductor facility and examples of wins from Intel's VOC reduction toolbox including improved waste management procedures. Finally, attention is given to remaining emissions problems and what must be done to ensure future manufacturing capability. 

Chin-Tsao Yang, Shu-Hou Wang, Milton Li, Wu-Hsiung Fu, & Max Chen, Facility department, Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation

ABSTRACT
During the design of PSC's Fab 12A, whole system efficiency was promoted, particularly in terms of power consumption. One of the most effective energy-saving projects was to lower the temperature of cooling water to promote the operational efficiency of the chiller system. This measure resulted in power savings for the chiller system of about 15 percent or some 7GWH of electricity a year. 

Philip Naughton, Freescale Semiconductor Inc. Assignee at SEMATECH, Austin, Texas, USA

ABSTRACT
Resource consumption directly impacts the cost of semiconductor manufacturing and indirectly contributes to environmental pollution. Several resource-conservation projects and surveys since 1996, have been performed at Sematech member companies and suppliers demonstrating significant reductions in tool and resource consumption are possible but are they enough? The ITRS roadmap continues to challenge new fabs to meet ever-decreasing energy goals. The World Semiconductor Council and SEMI have issued their White Paper on Energy suggesting normalized energy reductions for wafer fabs. In order to achieve measurable reductions both factory owners and tools suppliers will need to baseline their energy consumption and establish specific targets for improvement. 

Pablo Ruiz, RFAB Process Waters and Drains Project Manager, Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, USA

ABSTRACT

In the first quarter of 2004, TI began design of its new wafer fabrication facility in Richardson, Texas, five miles north of the main Dallas campus. We reexamined how to competitively build and operate this new facility and reconsidered all of our old paradigms of how we should build a wafer fab. By the end of the design process we determined that we could  build a competitive fab while reducing first costs and ongoing operational costs. In this article I will be discussing some of these  design elements in TI's newest fab we now call RFAB. 

Mark Osborne, Editor-in-Chief, Semiconductor Fabtech

ABSTRACT

Energy-consumption-reduction strategies are nothing new, however, such energy-saving efforts have not been successful in reducing the overall energy consumption of the semiconductor industry. The total number of operational fabs continues to increase due to the continued growth of the industry. The number of "Mega" 300-mm fabs (50 by the end of 2005) [1] that have significantly higher energy consumption levels is also rising. The world is also coming to terms with the realisation that energy costs will continue to rise as consumption of fossil fuels (regarded as the cheapest energy source) is under sustained supply/demand pressure. 

Michael W. Wismer & Richard E.Woodling, USFilter, Milpitas, CA, USA

ABSTRACT

The Copper Select™ process is being used at many semiconductor Fabs around the world to successfull treat copper-bearing CMP wastewaters. The patented process removes copper from wastewater without removing the CMP slurry particles. Studies have shown the process to be very successful with most commercially available copper slurry formulations. 

Jay M. Dietrich, Chemical, Environmental and Utility Systems, IBM Burlington, USA

ABSTRACT

As the semiconductor industry has transitioned from aluminum to copper metallization, it has been necessary to overcome many technical challenges in the device-manufacturing process. The required process changes for the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process have had a significant impact on the characteristics of the process wastewaters generated by the CMP process. 

Walter F.Worth, International SEMATECH, Austin, Texas, USA

ABSTRACT

For the last three years, International SEMATECH has had an active program to identify potential environment, safety, and health (ESH) impacts associated with the development of advanced lithography technologies. The focus has mainly centered on 157-nm lithography, 193-nm immersion lithography, and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Through close collaboration with the technologists in SEMATECH's lithography division, it is hoped that ESH concerns can be identified and addressed during the early stages of the materials selection and process/tool development, well in advance of their introduction into high-volume manufacturing (HVM).