Semiconductors

Micron Technology, Inc. announced today that it has started the deployment of the Applied Materials E3 framework within its 300mm fabrication facilities. Applied E3 is an integrated engineering system that allows sophisticated control strategies aimed at increasing product performance, raising product yield and improving quality.

Below is an excerpt of an article I co-authored in the latest issue of Nanochip Fab Solutions, an Applied Materials publication, on new green house gas regulations and the pressure added to efforts to lower energy costs in the Fab.

Achieving sustainable manufacturing is a critical goal for leading technology companies driven by growing concerns about the environmental impact of their businesses and by increasingly stringent government regulations and reporting requirements. Product sustainability extends not only to their operations, but also to the products that they manufacture.At Applied Materials we design our products with the environment in mind. Our goal is to make our products at least 20% more energy efficient and environmentally friendly by 2010 and we’re making great progress.

On the 100th anniversary of Edison’s tungsten bulb, alternative lighting methods that use less energy and reduce pollution are gaining ground. Fluorescent (FL) or compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs save energy but also have drawbacks such as unnatural color that may not be pleasing to the eye or in the case of CFL bulbs in particular, they may not fit in recessed lighting fixtures. And perhaps the most important issue, both FL and CFL bulbs contain mercury, requiring special handling for bulb disposal after use.On the horizon is a promising new technology, Light Emitting Diode (LED) devices that can provide a good replacement.

We are pleased to expand our collaboration with imec to help advance the development of GaN-on-Si (gallium nitride-on-silicon) process and equipment technologies for manufacturing solid state lighting (e.g. LED) and next-generation power electronics components on 8-inch Silicon wafers.

Applied Materials technologists are featured in the cover story of the current issue of Solid State Technology speaking to how energy consumption and the resulting carbon footprint can be reduced more than 20 percent in customer subfabs.  To read the article, click here.

Lots of innovation in the semiconductor industry goes towards making chips more energy-efficient. Less attention is paid to lowering the carbon footprint of the chip manufacturing process itself.Now, Applied's engineers have developed a smart technology that conserves resources by synchronizing the process tools in the fab with their support systems in the subfab. The new technology can reduce CO2 emissions for a CVD[1] chip processing system by 220,000 pounds annually[2]. When you consider that a modern fab may have more than 200 tools that could use this “green” solution, the total opportunity to lower the carbon footprint becomes quite impressive.

 When something goes wrong with a process system, manufacturers need immediate help. Thanks to the internet, there’s often no need to get on a plane when you can use a humble web browser to peer inside machinery located thousands of miles away. Using Applied Materials’ remote access capability, the company expects to avoid enough travel to save more than 650,000 pounds of CO2 emissions this year alone.