Striving towards becoming carbon neutral and reducing the impact of CO2 on the climate is not an easy undertaking for any industry, and especially challenging for semiconductor manufacturers. Manufacturers must keep pace with the huge demand in a global market that is expected to grow to over 1,000 billion US dollars by 2030. One reason for this surge in demand is the explosive growth in global consumption of consumer electronics. In addition, the development of advanced IT applications such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things or machine learning technologies plays a major role.
The high-precision and complex manufacturing process with hundreds of process steps requires the use of a large number of gases and chemicals, e.g. in thin-film deposition, coating, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), lithography, metrology, etching and many more. However, nitrogen is by far the gas that is consumed the most.
The increasing demand for ever smaller, highly developed semiconductors and chiplets is forcing manufacturers to work in inert or non-reactive environments throughout the entire production process. The extremely small lithographic structures and the thickness of the atomic layers on the wafers would be destroyed on contact with oxygen. This is usually prevented by nitrogen purging of front opening unified pods (FOUP) or other production systems with particle-free, ultra-high purity nitrogen gas (UHP). This protective measure has been the industry standard for decades, as nitrogen can be separated from the air in large quantities. The demand is enormous – and so is the potential for savings. So if you want to leverage potential savings, then the precisely dosed use of nitrogen in the production of semiconductors is an obvious choice.
Although reducing energy and carbon dioxide emissions may seem like a minor matter for you and many other manufacturers while you are busy trying to cope with the enormous demand, volumeit is worth keeping an eye on reducing energy and carbon dioxide emissions. Lower nitrogen emissions per wafer produced and the reduced amount you have to produce as a result, help you to increase the yield, as the compression and cooling processes in the production of UHP nitrogen consume a lot of energy.
You can also save energy in production, for example by using energy-efficient components. A sustainable reduction in power consumption also results in components heating up less, and therefore a lower cooling requirement for the cleanroom. Your company's CO2 footprint can be significantly improved with reduced emissions and sustainable production methods.
About the authors
Torsten Schulz
Head of Electronics Global Industry Segment
Festo SE & Co. KG
Tobias Glattbach
Electronics Global Industry Segment
Festo SE & Co. KG
