Fab mitigates carbon footprint with new energy efficiency initiatives
Semiconductor manufacturers are striving to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while increasing production. Utility consumption, including power, water and process gasses are a prime target for vendors and manufacturers across the supply chain to put in place measures to reduce their carbon footprint.
20% of a Fab’s power consumption is from vacuum and abatement processes
The challenge did not lie with the equipment but in establishing a reliable process for communicating when to start and end “Green Mode” status from the process tools to the vacuum system. Not all process tools have a “Green Mode” signal available for this function.
Leaving the system in “Production Mode” unnecessarily increased the risks to expensive process tools, wafer products, and the safety of personnel.
Switching to lower energy usage when a process tool is idle, or during maintenance, would minimise both utility consumption and operational costs.
Unnecessary power consumption and operational costs
All the plans that companies create have to be independently validated, publicised and reviewed. As a first step, companies submit a letter of intent to organizations such as “The Science-based Targets Initiative”.
As the next step, companies use the accountancy principles enshrined in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, to estimate their own global warming gas emissions. This needs to cover all greenhouse gas emissions, not only from their own factories, but also from their suppliers’ factories, and the use of their products in their customers’ factories. For near-term targets they need to identify at least 95% of the emissions from their own operations and more than two-thirds of the emissions from their suppliers and also from the use of their products in their customers’ factories.
Concerns across the Fab
- Carbon neutrality and energy reduction targets
- Additional burden on safety and maintenance teams
- Increases in operational expenses
This Fab needed a reliable way to reduce the environmental impact and utility costs associated with SubFab operations.
Find out how this customer achieved C02 equivalent kgs savings
