Semiconductor Industry Material Circulation in Taiwan – Challenge and Perspective
Fang-Ming Hsu
(Taiean Semiconductor Industry Association)
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LoginWaste management is a challenge in Taiwan in recent years due to limit downstream capacity of waste treatment, recycling and some illegal waste dumping cases occurred. Since the government in Taiwan announced the policy of promoting circular economy, domestic semiconductor industry is now keen to move its strategy from traditional waste disposal, recycling to more comprehensive material circulation. In response to actual needs and government’s policy, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. (TSMC) set its waste management strategies as follows: • Source Reduction: Reduce raw material consumption for processes to minimize waste generation • Change wastes to resources: Refine wastes to increase value of used materials together with suppliers and contractors for semiconductor and other industries • Prevent illegal dumping by aligned contractor audit on association level TSMC manages process wastes as potential resources. The company does its best to categorize wastes at process tool side and collects them separately in order to raise recyclability, and also collaborates with external waste treatment and recycling facilities to develop new recycling measures. Finally, we see the volume of wastes sent to incinerators and landfills has been significantly reduced. In consideration of external contractors’ capability, TSMC migrated its strategy of waste recycling from totally off-site recycling to partially on-site recycling in 2017 by regenerating wastes on its fab sites. This has also changes some of wastes to resources successfully. Nowadays, TSMC is dedicating to upgrade the quality of some regenerated chemicals aiming to be reused in semiconductor manufacturing processes. The company will keep collaborating with material suppliers to develop more material recycling technologies to reuse chemicals in manufacturing process, such as sulfuric acid, ammonia, TMAH (Tetramethylammonium hydroxide).