ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY

The purpose of this project is to address the major energy, productivity and environmental issues of the expanding California electronics industry. Industries in this rapidly growing market sector—including manufacturers of semiconductors, printed wiring boards, telecommunications equipment, computers, and peripherals (all major California industries)—face these issues as they strive to sustain or expand their position in the global marketplace. Yield, equipment utilization, energy efficiency, power quality, and water management are essential issues that all California electronics manufacturers must address. In addition, many firms in this internationally competitive industry strive to keep their product development efforts highly confidential.

EPRI's Electronics Industry Target follows a twofold strategy in working with these proprietary-minded industry sectors. The initial step in engaging any electronics industry sector involves the creation of an "industry gateway" through the formation of strategic alliances and project partnerships with industry organizations, through which project proposals may be credibly prioritized. The second step entails developing leveraged projects that create products of mutual interest to the industry sector(s) involved and the target funders. Such leverage may come in the form of supplemental funding from target funders or access to industry funded project results that only target funders can obtain. This strategy increases the likelihood that the project results will be used by the industry sector(s) that can benefit from those results, as the industry gateway approach permits a continuing connection to industry, even after a specific project has been completed.

This project supports the PIER Program objectives of:
• Improving the energy cost/value of California's electricity by promoting energy efficient manufacturing tools and processes, including manufacturing facility operations. The target also promotes electrotechnology applications (e.g., for water management) that result in the minimum use of electricity per unit of product, while maximizing the value of electricity by reducing overall production costs; and
• Improving the environmental and public health costs/risks of California's electricity by engaging in research to improve air, water, and solids emissions through pollution prevention, in-plant recycling, and end-of-pipe mechanisms in electronics plants.

Proposed Outcomes:
1. Provide information to accelerate the development and market penetration of energy- and water-efficient technologies to make productivity and environmental gains in California electronics manufacturing.
2. Compile and disseminate up-to-date information on electronics industry market conditions, primary issues, available technologies for addressing these issues, and industry research progress and needs.
Actual Outcomes:
1. Energy- and water-efficient technologies for electronics manufacturing.
• A report was published describing an evaluation of a perfluorocompound (PFC) capture and recovery unit designed to extract PFCs from the combined exhaust of 20 or more tool process chambers.
• A report was published on good tool exhaust optimization practices that will help California companies reduce clean-room energy use and makeup air costs associated with inefficient static pressure losses and exhaust from process tools.
• Access was given to six 1998 reports. These reports included: Summary of Wafer Rinse Optimization Studies at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Motorola, and Texas Instruments (TI) Fabs, International 300 mm Initiative (I300I) Tool Utility Usage Study, Evaluation of an SG Water Systems GmbH Prototype Electrodeionization (EDI) Unit, Addendum to the Sandia Evaluation of an SG Water Electrodeionization (EDI) Unit Report, Evaluation of Commercially Available On-Line Total Oxidizable Carbon (TOC) Analyzers for Monitoring Recycled Water, and Wafer Rinse Optimization Studies at Digital-Intel, SEMATECH, and Texas Instruments Fabs: Summary Report.
2. A report entitled the Worldwide Fab Energy Survey Report was published.

Project Status: The Commission's participation in this target ended as of December 31, 1999.