On July 1st, Toshiba Corporation's Semiconductor Company and Storage Products Company consolidated to form Semiconductor & Storage Products Company.This page describes previous Semiconductor Company's environmental activities.
Various Activities to Reduce Greenhouse Gases including PFCs
Reduction of greenhouse gases including PFCs are also actively pursued
We use perfluorocompounds (PFCs) and other greenhouse gases in the manufacturing process of semiconductors.
The World Semiconductor Committee (WSC), an international semiconductor industry group, selected seven kinds of greenhouse gases (CF4, C2F6, C3F8, C4F8, CHF3, SF6 and NF3) as the subjects for reduction and has a target to reduce total emission of those gases in 2010 to 90% of the amount emitted in 1995 (a 10% reduction).
The total emission amount of these seven gases by Semiconductor Company Group in 2009 was the equivalent of 340,000 tons of CO2, and partially thanks to the introduction of abatement systems, we achieved the WSC's target. We plan to continue reduction of these seven gases usage, promote installation of abatement systems and proceed with reduction of the total emission even after meeting this 2010 goal. We introduced 7 abatement system units with the support of the Agency and New Energy Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in fiscal year 2009.
- Transition of amount of PFC emissions(1000ton-CO2,%)
- (The above data covers all manufacturing sites in Japan and overseas)
Upcoming environmental technologies
The Semiconductor Company has been taking various measures to reduce environmental impact.
The PFC gas abatement system that drastically reduces effluent discharge is explained below.
In the semiconductor manufacturing process, PFC gas is exhausted in micro-patterning by dry etching. PFC gas has a greenhouse effect which is several thousand times larger than CO2. Therefore, Semiconductor Company has been making active efforts to reduce the PFC emissions.
The conventional exhaust gas abatement system removes PFC by dissolving the fluorine component decomposed from PFC gas in water. There was still a need to reduce acid effluent containing fluorine in order to reduce the environmental impact. The dry-type exhaust gas abatement system we have decided to introduce not only has the PFC gas decomposition performance equivalent to or better than that of the conventional equipment, but also it can remove the fluorine component by solidifying it as calcium fluoride (CaF2) through chemical reaction. As a result, water is not used in the abatement of PFC gas, and the amount of acid effluent can be significantly reduced.
We started to introduce the equipment at the fourth plant in Yokkaichi Operations in FY 2008. When fully operational, the new equipment will be able to reduce Yokkaichi Operations' water usage by approximately 180 thousand cubic meters of water annually.
- PFC gas abatement system that reduces effluent discharge
On July 1st, Toshiba Corporation's Semiconductor Company and Storage Products Company consolidated to form Semiconductor & Storage Products Company.This page describes previous Semiconductor Company's environmental activities.