Spring, 1998
Impending Environmental Problem or Opportunity for Change?
The High Price of High Tech
by Leslie Byster
Despite the Asian economic meltdown and the recent flurry of high-tech job lay-offs, the electronics industry continues project outstanding growth rates and the demand for wafers is soaring. According to Electronic Engineering Times (www.pubs.cmpnet.com/eet/) the Fabless Semiconductor Association predicts that demand is expected to increase by 45% from 1997!
The Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (www.semi.org) predicts the electronics industry will grow from $851 billion to $1380 billion in sales over the next five years. Most of the electronics sectors are expected to grow as well. The semiconductor manufacturing industry will grow from $132 billion to $275 billion; the semiconductor equipment industry will increase from $26 billion to $45 billion; and the materials industry will expand from $19 billion to $33 billion. PC sales continue to climb also.
As we prepare to enter the 21st Century of globalization and increasing global competitiveness, the high-tech industry is facing serious environmental challenges. With the escalating Òrate of changeÓ of new chip designs and generations, it is becoming even more difficult to anticipate and prevent problems in an industry that uses thousands of chemicals. Many of the chemicals are exotic. Many of them have not been tested for carcinogenicity, fewer still for reproductive toxicity, fewer still neurotoxicty, immunotoxity or potential impacts to the endocrine system. Complicating matters further, the additive and the synergistic effects haven't been tested for either.
So much for the notion of high-tech industry being a "clean" industry.
How many? How much is too much?
There are 127 new fabs in various stages of planning and construction, with the Pacific Rim, specifically Taiwan, experiencing the greatest growth. These brand new fabrication facilities "fabs" cost in excess of $1 billion each to build. The financial and the resource costs are expected to increase rapidly as industry moves from the 200 mm wafer to the new 300 mm (12 inch) wafer. The projected costs for the new 300mm fabs is $3 billion each.
Water
The production of semiconductor chips requires massive amounts of water. Consider that some fabs, like Intel's fab in Rio Rancho, New Mexico use nearly 5 MILLION GALLONS OF WATER A DAY! The new 300 mm fabs are expected to use more water, as much as 1 -1/2 to 2-1/2 times more water than the 200 mm wafer fabs. (These new fabs will use as much water as a city of 60,000 people uses in one year!) (Source: Semiconductor International)
Electricity.
Electrical energy usage also is a significant factor. It has been estimated that at over 800 kWhrs (kilowatt hours) of electrical energy (enough energy to supply a typical household for 2 months) is consumed during all the manufacturing steps of the semiconductor devices necessary to produce a single 200 mm wafer. (Source: SEMI Information website) The 1997 National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors states that in 1995 the electricity consumption by the US semiconductor industry totaled 8.4 billion kWhrs, and the electric bill is often the largest or second largest expense item, at 25-40% of a facility's operating budget!
Environment/Health Costs.
As new fabs and chip generations are developed, health and safety implications and environmental costs including those associated with accidents (and the rash of fires at semiconductor plants in Taiwan) are an ever-increasing concern.
Recognizing the health implications of the rapid rate of change in the industry, Dr. Harrison, a former physician at IBM, and others have talked of the need to integrate health and safety, and the "design for the environment" and "design for safety perspective" in the planning, fitting and design of fabrication facilities. Without foresight and adherence to the approach articulated in the precautionary principle the health of the community, the environment and workers will be increasingly at risk.
Prospects for the Future
The high-tech electronics revolution is transforming the world but it also presents a double-edged sword. On one side, it is innovative and inventive. Millions of functions can be placed on the head of a pin--transmitting millions of instructions at lightening speed. The industry is innovative and has developed the ability to make changes rapidly when needed for production-related reasons. On the other hand, its vision is driven by a business model that is built on unsustainable short-term thinking, rapid obsolesence and dependence on unrealistic profit margins. This business model is often at odds with the long-range environmental, community and health impacts of its actions.
An industry that can design spacecraft capable of roaming planets ought to be able to develop environmentally sustainable manufacturing processes. For instance, given the industry's reliance on huge quantities of water, chip companies need to be able to develop methods to re-use their own water in Closed Loop manufacturing processes, rather than continuing to waste millions of gallons of water every day. Closing the water loop is a first step in pollution prevention.
Pollution Prevention.
There are many examples of successful pollution prevention. Ffor instance when many in industry claimed it was not possible to change their CFC-dependent processes, a growing environmental movement and international treaty gave industry deadlines to phase out CFC's. Now CFC's are virtually gone, replaced by environmentally friendly soap and water. More recently, high-tech companies began phasing out use of glycol ethers, known reproductive toxins. As with the CFC's, industry originally denied that glycol ethers were a problem and that they were essential to the production process, but finally decided to switch after three epidemiological studies documented widespread linkages to miscarriages.
The challenge for the electronics industry is to embrace its environmental responsibilities comprehensively and to develop sustainable manufacturing processes that can take us into the next century. Now is the time for the industry to develop solutions as aggressively as it develops new products. The industry Roadmap for Technology to the year 2010 is planning several generations down the road to the 450 mm wafer. Now is the time to incorporate design for the environment, design for safety, designs for health into those plans. As the industry plans for the next generation of chips, we all have a stake in being involved in planning for the next generation of healthy children and a healthy environment.
Leslie Byster is SVTC Program Director
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