Measurement of conservation of energy by semiconductor manufacturing equipment and setting of targets for improvements

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 demonstrated 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.