The gravitational pull of customer demand, market access, shareholder and stakeholder pressures, regulatory compliance and risk management are driving sustainability into semiconductor design, as well as fab construction and operation. At the center of this, the green chip is a new aspiration for fabless and foundry companies alike. Sparking a sustainable innovation race, fab environments are reducing their energy consumption, moving to sustainable energy sources, and cutting water usage. Multinational organizations are abating process gas emissions and investing to reinvent high GWP (global warming potential) process gasses altogether. Semi-service providers have invented ingenious tracking and machine learning software to drive sustainability into the core of semiconductor fab operations. Semi-suppliers are creating IoT mesh networks to bring about virtual learning environments for digital twin/optimization and AI. These projects center on the simultaneous optimization of process efficiency and reduction of the fab’s carbon footprint. But how do we know when we have reached the green chip? First, the standard, this paper will detail the current technology and demand trends moving us towards the green chip. Moore’s Law grounds our perspective facing the stark truths about AI and sub-nanometer chips becoming a common ground for leading-edge manufacturing. By defining the standard, the semiconductor industry will be grounded in the new requirements needed throughout their supply chains to drive down the carbon footprints of mature and leading-edge technologies. Next, the vision, sustainable innovation maturity mapping improves our foresight of the future sustainable developments. Industry 4.0 is paving the way for technological improvements like lights-out manufacturing, digital twins, emission reduction, and integrated FDC manufacturing systems raising the standard for sustainable innovation. The vision is established to provide a runway to the green chip for the semiconductor industry. Lastly, the value, blue-chip investment strategy hinges on identifying opportunity in pricing. The inherent environmental impacts of chips can drag down their value in current state markets. This section will elaborate on intrinsic price premiums that can be attributed to sustainable investments and development of processes, platforms, features, and products. The green chip is a new frontier for de-risking long term investments and improving margins. Want a glimpse into the future? Interested parties will learn about the fundamental integration that the industry 4.0 will play in the transformation to create the first green chip. This includes building the connections from optimization to sensor/software layers, compliance to process gas capture/abatement, and everything from chip demand to gas chemistries.
