Intel's New Process To Reduce Water Use at Microchip Plant Several Years Away

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Intel's Community Environmental Working Group hosted a presentation on technology that has the potential to reduce water use at the microchip plant by up to 80 percent and virtually eliminate harmful solvents.

RIO RANCHO, N.M. — Intel's Community Environmental Working Group hosted a presentation on technology that has the potential to reduce water use at the microchip plant by up to 80 percent and virtually eliminate harmful solvents.


The earliest the process could be implemented is around 2010, a panel of experts said.


The news upset members of two activist groups who have touted the process as a key to reducing Intel's air emissions and water use.


Members of the working group and a panel of national experts discussed supercritical carbondioxide and its uses in microchip manufacturing on Thursday at the Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales.


The panelists included Craig Taylor, a chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory; Richard Reidy, associate professor, Material Science and Engineering Department, University of North Texas; Gunilla Jacobson, research associate, Stanford University; and Ken David, director of Components Research, Intel.


Taylor, who heads the team that invented the microchip cleaning process, said the supercritical carbondioxide method is more environmentally sound than the process Intel uses and would allow the chipmaker to build more complex microchips.


"Supercritical fluid is the phase you get when a liquid goes beyond the boiling point," he said. "Liquid generally turns to steam, but when it's under pressure the densities between the liquid state and a vapor achieve the same density. When it goes beyond that, it becomes supercritical."


Cleaning microchips with supercritical fluid eliminates the rinse stage and the drying stage of the manufacturing process, eliminating the need for large amounts of water and solvents.


"Making a microchip is like developing a black and white photograph over and over again," he said. "It uses a lot of chemicals and lots of water. By using the supercritical carbondioxide process, you eliminate the need for the water and the solvents."


As great as the technology sounds, there are problems implementing it, experts on the panel said.


Jacobson said the process is too expensive and it's no better than the current one.


"To make this technology functional, the cost of ownership needs to be reduced," she said. "Also, the process needs to be chemically compatible with other processes going on in the fabs. Finally, the process damages the machines used to clean the wafers and the wafers become contaminated with particles."


Reidy said that another factor limiting the use of the technology was the fact that it was deemed unnecessary for the next generation of microchips.


"We missed the technology node," he said. "It was determined that the industry really didn't need to use this until we move to semiconductors with a 32-nanometer width."


"I think it's laughable and embarrassing that this technology exists, but Intel won't use it because of a hypothetical window that has closed," SouthWest Organizing Project Director Robby Rodriguez said. "Nine out of every 10 computers have Intel inside and they can't implement this. This is a community that deserves to be healthy. We live in a desert. It is unconscionable that Intel continues to use millions of gallons of water a day."


Jacobson brought up an obvious reason for not implementing the technology: "Even if Intel wanted to buy a supercritical carbon dioxide tool today, they couldn't because they don't exist," she said.


Corrales Residents for Clean Air and Water and SWOP have accused Intel of releasing emissions that cause illnesses to nearby residents.


Intel officials have repeatedly denied those allegations and a report released by the state Environment Department said there were no adverse health risks associated with Intel's air emissions.


That report was contested by scientists within both the Environment Department and the state Health Department.


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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News