The latest Electron Devices Society (EDS) newsletter highlights a technical brief about “Environmental sustainability of semiconductor facilities (essf): a roadmap for industry transformation”.

The article article outlines the initiative by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) via the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) to chart a roadmap for making semiconductor manufacturing facilities more environmentally sustainable.

It highlights the major environmental impacts of modern fabs and their multiple interrelated pressures and argues that sustainability has become mission-critical for the industry.

The roadmap takes a holistic view of facility utilities (water, energy, chemicals, emissions) and tool-level impacts, sets out key performance indicators (KPIs) for water and energy consumption, and identifies technology gaps and opportunities, such as reuse of water, heat recovery, adoption of renewable energy…

Finally, the authors call for collaboration among equipment suppliers, fabs, and standards organisations  to update standards and to embed sustainability into the design of future facilities.