Energy consumption of the semiconductor industry is huge and energy saving is imminent

According to the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) estimates that the global semiconductor industry every year to save about $500 million in energy costs, which is enough to provide energy for a small city, and is conducive to environmental protection.

ISMI is the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers industry alliance, the past 8 years has been committed to reducing the energy consumption of the semiconductor industry. The organization pointed out that if the entire chip industry to take the best way to save energy and reduce consumption, the industry is expected to save a total of 4 billion 800 million kwh a year, or about $480 million, enough to use 177 thousand families.

ISMI said that the organization is able to represent half of the global semiconductor production capacity of 12 members, some members have taken measures to reduce energy consumption. This also implies that some other members and the rest of the industry did not take any energy saving measures. ISMI recommends that the energy saving measures include reducing the flow of clean air to reduce the consumption of ultra pure water, as well as the use of more efficient electric motors.

ISMI members include AMD, Freescale Carle (Freescale), HP (HP) (Infieon), IBM, Infineon, Intel, Matsushita (Intel) (Panasonic), PHILPS (Philips), Samsung (Samsung), Spansion, TSMC (TSMC) and TI (Texas Instruments). ISMI did not specify which companies took measures to save energy. Despite being a member of the non ISMI organization, STMicroelectronics (ST) over the years through the "carbon footprint" technology innovation, has been in the leading green.

ISMI director Scott Kramer said: "for chip manufacturers, reducing energy consumption is an effective way to reduce costs, but compared with the production efficiency and equipment problems, it is often overlooked. Only a small number of chip manufacturers in the world can accurately calculate their energy consumption, so it is difficult for most plants to optimize the energy consumption."

ISMI said that members of the energy conservation measures have achieved significant results in cost savings. One of the companies by reducing the flow rate of the clean room, the annual cost savings of more than $3 million 300 thousand; another company through energy saving measures, saving the cost of more than $3 million worldwide; and a company by reducing the water consumption of 94 million gallons, save the cost of about $600 thousand a year. ISMI did not disclose the names of the three companies.

Kramer said: "the semiconductor industry needs to strive for profit, energy conservation is not only an important source of cost savings, revenue, but also very conducive to environmental protection."