A New Look at Life Cycle Assessment for the Semiconductor Industry
Ho, Holly; Schuppe, Jennifer
(International SEMATECH, Austin, TX)
In the semiconductor industry, there is an increasing interest in life cycle assessment as a tool to evaluate and communicate the environmental impact of products and processes. In fact, the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors has a goal that calls for establishing a full life cycle assessment methodology for the industry by the year 2006. As one step in the direction of that goal, International SEMATECH has recently started a review of this topic, with the findings documented in a recently completed white paper. The white paper reviews what has been done in prior years at SEMATECH and the SEMATECH member companies as well as what is currently being studied. The study reviews case studies from within the semiconductor industry and commercially available software packages associated with the case studies.