Karsten Schischke

Life cycle inventory analysis and identification of environmentally significant aspects in semiconductor manufacturing

Intrinsically, semiconductor fabrication processes contain expensive and environmentally sensitive processes. The high purity requirements of input materials coupled with the extreme cleanliness of the processing environment provide a great challenge in managing the potential environmental impacts of this industry. High energy and water consumption and the throughput of hazardous auxiliaries give rise to additional environmental concerns. This paper presents a methodology for a life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) employed for a Motorola wafer fab. The LCI focuses on the generation of a complete data set of mass and energy flows for a wafer fab and the identification of environmentally significant aspects in wafer processing. Process modules within the infrastructure and the fab processes are identified as environmentally significant according to the consumption of energy, raw water, chemicals, gases and the origin of waste, wastewater, and emissions. The use of infrastructure facilities by fab processes is taken into account. The practical methodology worked out by Fraunhofer IZM and Motorola is a guideline to combine ecological and economical aspects and can be applied to realize environmental improvements within a company. The LCI data set is a basis for an impact assessment to gain LCA data for one of the most important processes in semiconductor fabrication. Corresponding methodologies for impact assessments are discussed.

Welding Equipment Under the Energy‐Related Products Directive

A broad range of energy‐using products have been analyzed to shape the eco‐design requirements for the European market under the Ecodesign Framework Directive 2009/125/EC in the last several years. Only recently, this approach also addressed production equipment, including ovens, furnaces, machine tools, and related machinery. Welding equipment has been subject to such an analysis as part of the study on machine tools. This article summarizes the individual steps of this technical, economic, and environmental analysis to facilitate the understanding of the policy intentions: The study followed a standardized methodology and identified, through this approach, a significant energy savings potential of 7.6 petajoules per year and suitable policy options. The article discusses these options, addressing in particular the challenges faced by industrial equipment. Some shortcomings of the methodology to be used have to be stated. These are time and resource constraints to develop policy measures with adequate resources, uncertain market evidence, and the challenge to forecast the effect of engineering options not yet implemented in a product. Under these conditions, the findings are a compromise between feasibility and scientific robustness.

Methodology and utilization of simplified eco-assessments for policy making

Environmental policy making, green product rating, and marketing activities seem likely to drive the utilization of eco-assessments in the near future. In this paper we show from the example of EuP Preparatory Studies and other policy supporting studies some characteristics of ICT eco-assessments on different economical levels. We argue that the high diversity of individual cases coupled with technology dynamics, which characterize the ICT development, requires an adequate parameterization in the eco-assessments. We present the idea of a multi-level model that incorporates these aspects and could be used as an interface for different eco-assessment purposes.

Green MST design from a designer's perspective: how to base decisions on environmental issues

Eco-design is a frequently applied concept, but mostly as a case study or based on a given product, which has to be improved. Rarely design for environment is used as part of the development of a new product, because environmental assessments usually need a sound data basis; see e.g. common life cycle analysis concepts. Hence, this paper presents an integrated approach, how to deal with environmental issues during product design, when knowledge about the later product is still fairly limited - and the possibility to implement major changes is still given. The approach presented focuses on lean and smart measures, which work without additional extensive data acquisition and scenarios. However, they impose uncertainties, but remain applicable for the designer. This approach is shown for one of the most advanced tasks in electronics: Design of micro systems technology (MST) devices, known also as micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS). Furthermore, overlaps with other disciplines, such as microelectronics design is inevitable.