Imec's Virtual Fab Goes Public to Speed IC Manufacturing Decarbonization

Find the Latest SoC Solutions
for... Automotive... IoT... Security... Audio... Video

"The improvement in environmental impact needs to come together with the improvement in scaling," imec's Lars-Åke Ragnarsson said.

www.eetimes.eu/, Nov. 15, 2023 – 

What is the environmental footprint of integrated circuits? Because the industry still lacks a holistic approach to the challenge of decarbonizing IC manufacturing, imec has developed the imec.netzero virtual fab to better assess the energy consumption, water use and greenhouse gas emissions of current and future logic CMOS technologies. This platform is now available in a private and public version to reach a wider audience.

The semiconductor industry is resource-intensive in energy, water, chemicals and raw materials. Imec estimates that the IC manufacturing industry could end up at 3% of total emissions by 2040. In other words, if we do nothing to reduce emissions from IC manufacturing, total emissions in 2040 will reach 400 megatons of CO2 equivalent, almost half the emissions from the entire ICT sector today.

In September 2021, imec launched the Sustainable Semiconductor Technologies and Systems (SSTS) program to help the IC manufacturing value chain reach its environmental sustainability targets. The program is structured around three pillars: Assess, Improve and Disrupt.

Launched in 2022, the imec.netzero virtual platform is at the center of the Assess pillar. The platform provides a quantified bottom-up view of IC manufacturing for current and future logic and memory technologies. It assesses energy consumption, water and mineral use, as well as greenhouse gas emissions associated with the various semiconductor manufacturing processes, in order to identify high-impact processes.

"As you move toward more advanced technologies, you will see an increase in emissions per wafer for two reasons," Lars-Åke Ragnarsson, SSTS program director at imec, told EE Times Europe. The first reason is the ever-increasing complexity of IC design and the second is the complexity and energy consumption associated with their manufacturing process. "These two [reasons] cause an emission increase per technology," and the projected semiconductor industry's growth to a trillion-dollar valuation outlines the urgency to curb IC manufacturing's carbon footprint.

"As part of Improve, we take the learnings from the virtual fab and we define projects together with partners to reduce the impact," Ragnarsson said. "Disrupt is about thinking beyond how technology is developed today. Not only should we consider power, performance, area and cost but also the environment."

click here to read more...

 Back