Introduction
Welcome to the SEMI PFAS information "Explainer". It is intended primarily to provide companies in the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain with some basic and some detailed information about PFAS. It focuses on components that are incorporated into semiconductor manufacturing equipment (sometimes known as “tools” in the semiconductor industry) and the equipment that is built into semiconductor manufacturing facilities. For an overview of the inputs, infrastructure and equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, click here.
Semiconductor manufacturing equipment includes ingot saw, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), etch, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), coater developer, lithography, ion implantation, cleaning, metrology, prober/tester, and many other systems. Semiconductor manufacturing facilities equipment includes distribution and purification/treatment systems for water, process chemicals, cleanroom air, and manufacturing equipment emissions/exhaust; as well as workpiece transport and stocker systems, clean room wall panels, clean room clothing, and also many other items. The term “Equipment” is used here to represent all of these products.
The term ‘component’ means a lowest level bill-of-materials item acquired by an equipment manufacturer to make their product. A component can be as simple as a cable tie or as complex as a wafer handling robot system. An assembly for which the equipment manufacturer controls the bill-of-materials is not a component. An ‘article’ is essentially a piece of hardware that has at some time existed independently. Components are also articles. ‘Part’ has a broader meaning and is used for components, assemblies of components, and occasionally items within a component.
The PFAS Concern for Industry
The PFAS concern is related to a large family of substances that have certain types of bonding between fluorine and carbon atoms. It began with a focus on only a few substances but has now expanded to a group of several thousand substances.
Some of the earliest PFAS substances were developed in the 1940’s. Since then, the development of PFAS substances has grown exponentially. PFAS have enabled every aspect of our modern society from chemical processing, and medicine to the millions of devices that comprise our massive computation and communications infrastructures.
In the 1950s, information that was not broadly available demonstrated health concerns with some early PFAS substances. This was followed by more publicly available investigations into some of these same PFAS substances that were poorly managed at the PFAS manufacturing sites and at factories where they were used to make other materials. This information revealed even more about the potential impacts of PFAS to human health and the environment.
Because of the strength of the fluorine-carbon bond, many PFAS can last a very long time in the natural environment, where they can accumulate at multiple points in the food chain. The longevity of many PFAS molecules, and the growing body of information about their negative impacts to human health and the environment has now led to global concerns, of varying degrees of seriousness, with all PFAS substances. We are now faced with a very large group of substances that are embedded in every aspect of our modern society, most of which we have not investigated deeply, but all of which have been brought into question.
We must figure out how to responsibly limit, control, and investigate PFAS while defining and maintaining the uses that are essential.
Why Your Company Should Be Concerned
As a product supplier, the PFAS concern has an impact on the triple bottom line: People, Planet, and Profit. Beyond the health (people) and environmental (planet) concerns described elsewhere, the ongoing debate on PFAS can have a direct impact on the profitability of your company. Your ability to manufacture, sell, import, or export your products can be hampered by developing regulations that restrict PFAS in or require notification of their presence in your product. Additionally, your ability to acquire the materials and components used to make your products can also be affected.
Investigating and understanding where PFAS are present in your products and supply chain is critical in preventing or minimizing disruptions to your business. The large number of chemicals involved coupled with them being present in more substances and parts then you may be aware of dictates starting this investigation as early as possible.
Microelectronic devices are designed into almost everything we use in our modern lives. A central part of the microelectronics industry is the production of semiconductors, which are used to make microchips which control anything electronic from the smallest switches to huge datacenters, critical infrastructure, the transportation sector, and even the equipment that manufactures them.
This Explainer was developed by the SEMI PFAS working group and is maintained under their oversight.
This guide aims to be as clear and concise as possible, while also explaining some of the important, but finer points in the PFAS discussion with sufficient detail. In the interest of making this information available as quickly as possible, some organizational clarity may have been sacrificed. The working group plans to restructure this information in the next few months to assist comprehension. If you have any concerns about the information on this page, or would like to offer some additional ideas for it, please contact ehs@semi.org
Please note: SEMI makes no warranties or representation to the accuracy or usefulness of the information contained on this webpage. Accuracy is solely the responsibility of the user. Users are cautioned to refer to other relevant literature of the subject matter herein. This information is subject to change without notice. This "explainer" was developed by members of the SEMI PFAS Working Group. Please send suggestions for improvement to ehs@semi.org