In the 1990s, as Intel's operations expanded and diversified, an increased risk of not meeting current or future environmental requirements was recognized. Waiting for regulatory agencies to issue more stringent environmental permits resulting in time-consuming and costly delays due to public review was not an option. Limiting expansion and flexibility on the grounds of environmental constraints, real or perceived, was clearly a risk Intel could not take.

Many companies rely solely on end-of-pipe expansion tactics like adding expensive abatement equipment or moving their manufacturing operations to less regulated countries. Intel developed a unique and strategic plan to avoid these risks: research and development teams were given process-specific environmental goals or targets prior to beginning product development. By using this strategy and achieving the goals, each new process generation would be at minimum environmental risk as it transferred to high-volume manufacturing (HVM) sites. In this section we define Intel's environmental goal-setting process, its global applicability, and how it minimizes risk throughout each technology lifecycle.

Environmental Risk Assessment

Setting Intel's process environmental goals is complex and demands a complete review of both current and future environmental risks. Tying this program into Intel's long-term expansion planning is a key piece of the goal-setting process. For this reason, environmental engineers are integral to Intel's site selection and long-range planning teams. Environmental concerns vary due to differences in geography, population density, other industrial infrastructure, local regulations, and global initiatives. Despite these differences, Intel proliferates environmentally consistent technology worldwide, designed to protect the most sensitive site from adverse environmental impacts throughout the expansion roadmap. This proactive strategy enables flexibility and reduces the risk of environmental restrictions. After years of developing this process, Intel is currently setting process goals in four main categories: air, wastewater, chemical waste, and ultra-pure water use. Each area demands a unique approach to risk management. See Table 1 for details.

Table 1: Intel environmental process goals and drivers

Air

The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines facilities as major emission sources of air pollutants if they exceed certain thresholds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can cause smog or hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). Sites that are major sources are generally subject to more restrictive requirements that can limit flexibility to make process changes or introduce new equipment. Intel's business model requires that new manufacturing processes be introduced rapidly and that there is the flexibility to continuously improve existing manufacturing processes. Intel has a policy to remain a US Federal minor source of air pollutants making it a win-win for Intel: the communities have less air pollutants, and Intel reduces risk by having the flexibility to rapidly make process improvements. Air emission goals are established to enable manufacturing sites to remain as minor air emission sources.

Increased concern about global warming raises the risk that high global warming chemicals may be severely restricted. Perfluorinated gases (PFCs) such as SF6, C2F6, and NF3 are critical chemicals in semiconductor manufacturing as etchants and for in-situ chamber cleans. Chemicals in this class also tend to cause global warming because of their stability in the atmosphere. Intel has worked with the World Semiconductor Council to establish the first worldwide industry voluntary reduction target for global-warming emissions. This target is to reduce absolute global warming emissions from the worldwide semiconductor industry by 10% below 1995 levels by 2010. Because of the high compound annual growth rate of the industry this is equivalent to about a 90% reduction in emissions per production unit or per chip. The world-wide agreement ensures all companies start on a level playing field and no one company reduces its competitiveness by investing to address this important environmental issue.

Wastewater

While clear directives regarding air emissions are given by both international and national governing bodies, defining risks from discharges associated with wastewater pollutants is site specific. At each of Intel's fabs, the wastewater is discharged to a Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW). These POTWs treat both industrial and residential wastewater and discharge their treated wastewater to varied end uses including rivers, irrigation ponds, and even directly into groundwater aquifers. To minimize the risks of impacting local infrastructure and the environment Intel has established close relationships with the ten POTWs serving the worldwide manufacturing facilities and has also partnered with key consultants specializing in wastewater modeling, control, and treatment.

In order to establish the appropriate goals, Intel's wastewater engineers engage the technology development researchers and their process roadmaps to scan for materials that may be considered risks to these POTWs and ultimately to the environment. Intel uses the USEPA's Office of Wastewater Management Local Limits Development Guidance as the basis for each wastewater goal and to help understand early in development what pollution prevention or infrastructure changes will be needed. The process takes into consideration domestic and industrial growth projections in each region along with other factors such as POTW operational limitations, POTW infrastructures, worldwide wastewater permits, and water quality. For those chemicals where little or no data exists, structured scientific analyses are conducted to understand the control requirements. By using the same process to set goals as the local municipalities use to set permit limits, Intel's goal-setting process is consistent and defensible, thereby minimizing the risks that changes in local requirements will impact the technology lifecycle.

The wastewater goal-setting program and its successes have been shared with a number of POTWs, governmental officials, and industry groups. In each case Intel has received accolades for being innovative, environmentally friendly, and proactive.

Chemical Waste

Several process generations ago, Intel recognized the risk associated with shipping off site increasing volumes of chemical waste. In addition to cost, the risks of exposing the public to Intel's chemical waste, and the image this portrayed, was a driver for establishing a chemical waste goal. To reduce chemical waste, Intel applies the pollution prevention hierarchy: replace, reduce, reuse, recycle, abate. A successful application of the hierarchy (Figure 1) is the optimization in volume and the reclamation of copper from a plating waste that was once shipped offsite. Intel developed and installed a system to reclaim elemental copper for recycling, while returning clean water to the watershed. In this way, Intel has reduced the liability (and cost) of shipping large quantities of waste off site, while taking the responsibility to minimize the environmental impact of its operations.

Water

Although water use is generally not regulated by permits, excessive use can have considerable environmental impacts. The risks of operating sites in arid and desert regions are evident as water rights, water recycling, and water conservation have become community priorities. Maintaining public support of site manufacturing and expansion is very important. The greatest opportunity to reduce water consumption is during the selection of new manufacturing equipment. In 2006, Intel established a goal to reduce its 2010 normalized water use to below 2005 levels.

Figure 1: Intel's design for environment strategy
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Validation

When new manufacturing processes are ramping at the HVM sites, engineers measure the performance to the environmental process goals in each of the areas outlined above. Although goal setting takes place up to three years prior to HVM, validating the performance of each technology provides the feedback to determine the effectiveness of the goals and the gaps that exist with respect to the current performance. In identifying these gaps, site engineers can more accurately understand the risks associated with future expansion plans.

Product Ecology

EHS and the Corporate Product Regulations and Standards (CPRS) organizations work closely with product development groups to avoid conflicts between designs and requirements for energy use, materials content, and recyclability. External engagement to ensure workable product standards and globally harmonized requirements is of increasing importance as regulations are increasingly put in place in emerging geographies. The Product Ecology Steering Committee and the higher-level senior management review group coordinated product ecology priorities and strategies.

Chemical Use, Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology Concerns

In order to continue to meet Moore's Law the design and development of Intel's semiconductor products requires the use of new and novel materials. In fact over 9,000 materials were evaluated at Intel's technology development centers in support of new logic, memory, and packaging products. The drive for increasing performance is resulting in not only the use of new materials in the semiconductor fabrication process but is also driving the need to custom create new compounds and formulations that have never been used in commerce before. The introduction of new chemicals and manufacturing processes without adequate controls has resulted in the past in personnel exposure to toxic materials, adverse chemical reactions (fire/explosions), and facility problems such as blockage of critical waste streams of on-line HVM factories.

As part of Intel's Chemical Use Policy, all materials purchased for use undergo an EHS review prior to their use. The EHS review includes a determination of the product's hazards and a review of the applicable legal requirements governing its use. The regulatory review includes not only the requirements specific to the Technology Development facility but also includes the restrictions applicable to the potential HVM site as well. Early identification of site-specific, chemical-specific legal requirements is critical to understand their potential for use in HVM. External engagement also identifies regulatory restrictions for the use of critical materials. Teams are actively working on the development of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization for Chemicals (REACH) in the European Union and reserving the ability to use critical chemicals until workable alternatives are proven (e.g., PFOS, lead for certain product applications). Based on the hazard review and legal requirements determination the proper use requirements are provided to the researchers in order to ensure the safe and regulatory compliant use of the material. Examples of the types of use requirements provided to the researchers include toxic gas monitoring requirements, use of personal protective equipment, designation of waste disposal methods, storage requirements.

Since many of the materials are either new to the semiconductor industry or are a new material entering commerce there is frequently little to no published health hazard information available on the specific compounds of interest. Intel EHS utilizes a board certified toxicologist to perform toxicity assessments to determine if the materials are carcinogenic, cause reproductive problems, are extremely toxic, or otherwise hazardous to human health. Intel's toxicologist employs sophisticated EPA models for toxicity determinations when no published toxicity information exists.

Based on the hazards identified, a site-specific team of experts evaluates the proposed use of the material to determine the use requirements. Included in the team are chemists, environmental engineers, industrial hygienists, toxicologists, facilities engineers, and materials purchasing representatives. This multi-discipline approach has proven invaluable in identifying potential safety issues in new chemicals with respect to their impact on facility waste systems. Of particular importance is the identification of adverse chemical reactions during the use of the material or subsequent facility waste treatment processing.

Materials that are identified as posing a high risk to personnel, processing equipment, or facilities undergo an additional Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) to ensure all safety issues have been identified and resolved. An example of the use of PHA would be the introduction of a highly toxic reactive gas into a diffusion furnace. The PHA would be performed with Intel engineers and representatives from the diffusion furnace manufacturer to fully identify the new hazards and to ensure that the necessary engineering controls are in place to safely use the material on a specific furnace (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Model for early engagement with technology development: broader impact and effectiveness with fewer operational resources
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Safety in Design

The Hazard Profile

Today's semiconductor facilities utilize toxic, corrosive, pyrophoric, and flammable materials. These materials are inherently hazardous, sometimes in small quantities, and therefore safety engineering is required to contain the hazard, reducing the risk to meet acceptable risk levels. Elimination of any single point of failure causing a release is one basic premise utilized. Figure 3 shows the critical points of risk that must be addressed, and the activities to address these risks are discussed in the following sections. The risk management and control of these risks starts by integrating EHS systems into the procurement and installation of process equipment, facilities design, the safe commissioning and pre-startup safety process of these new facilities, and finally into influencing external codes and standards.

Figure 3: Critical points of failure and control in typical process tool installation
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Safety in Equipment Design

Intel's EHS requirements for the procurement of process equipment are primarily driven to the front of the supplier chain through the Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers Institute (SEMI) guideline process, an organization that develops standards for its members. Intel has long participated in SEMI, serving and chairing several committees over the years, and it was the first company to include EHS-related SEMI standards in its purchase agreements in the mid 1980s. EHS requirements such as SEMI S2 (safety), SEMI S8 (ergonomics), and S10 (hazard classification) are just part of the "S" series of SEMI guidelines intended to define these industry standards for process equipment. In addition, Intel-specific requirements are included to address other risks. These include combustible material restrictions to reduce fire risk and insurance costs, and environmental characterization and emissions requirements to control and manage our site environmental permitting requirements for air, waste, and water emissions (see Environmental section, earlier in the article).

After the procurement of process equipment, it must be installed and integrated into facility systems. To accomplish this, EHS has integrated its requirements into the process equipment installation standards. This includes ergonomic clearances for safe maintenance and operation, ventilation, spill control, gas detection, and all EHS aspects related to how the process equipment is installed. After these requirements have been established for equipment installations at the TD site, they are transferred via the Master Design Package, which documents how all process equipment is installed at HVM sites.

Facilities and Chemical Distribution Systems

Semiconductor process equipment is supported by larger facilities systems that perform gas distribution, bulk chemical delivery, and waste treatment. EHS requirements are integrated into the design of this equipment through the Facilities Equipment Procurement Process, which is an Intel master specification for all newly procured and designed facilities systems. As with process equipment, driving these requirements up the supply chain is the philosophy employed. This starts with outlining expectations early in the Request for Proposal (RFP) and Request For Quote (RFQ) from each supplier, and ends in the final design of the equipment. In addition, all new facilities systems have a formal Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) conducted to assess the upset conditions the equipment may present, the controls in place, and the adequacies of these controls to prevent events with high or catastrophic potential. As with process equipment, these facilities systems are procured at the TD site, and these EHS aspects are copied and transferred to the HVM sites through the Facilities Transfer Process.

Safe Building Design

Process equipment and facilities equipment must all reside within the walls of the actual fabrication facilities. EHS has integrated its requirements through the EHS Master Design Standard (MDS). The EHS MDS defines the requirements and expectations for the fabrication facilities; a second MDS exists for AT facilities and office buildings. This standard is used to support the many codes, standards, and regulations that drive the design of our facilities.

Pre-Startup Safety Review

After the integration of EHS requirements into the procurement, design, and engineering aspects is complete, it is critical to ensure that these new facilities are constructed to the design, and that all safety systems are in place and functional prior to startup. This is especially important for high hazards chemical and gas systems. For this reason, EHS requirements are a key part of the pre-startup and commissioning process. EHS has developed these checklists for process equipment, facilities systems, and factory commissioning.

External Influence

Semiconductor facilities are highly regulated by fire and building codes and other standards. Intel participates in various committees, such as NFPA 318 (Fire Protection and Life Safety in cleanrooms) and SIA FABS (Fire and Building Codes) to influence the International Fire and Building Code, and the Center for Chemical Process Safety to influence publications and research related to process safety. By doing this Intel strives to maintain a high degree of occupant safety and to also ensure increased flexibility and reduced cost where opportunities exist.