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Producing semiconductor wafers involves about 1,000 manufacturing steps, some of which require ultra-pure water to prevent even the smallest impurities from contaminating the process.<\/p>\n
At United Microelectronics Corporation’s (UMC) wafer fabrication facility in Pasir Ris, about 10,000 cubic metres of NEWater are used each day.<\/p>\n
The water is treated into ultra-pure water for chipmaking before being collected, treated and reused.<\/p>\n
UMC Singapore senior fab director Thomas Tey said: \u201cIf we can optimise and reduce the water usage for the process steps, we can save quite a lot of water.\u201d<\/p>\n
By segregating different wastewater streams, the wafer foundry is able to recover nearly 70 per cent of the water it uses.<\/p>\n
Its water efficiency and recycling initiatives recover 3.9 million cubic metres of water annually \u2013 enough to fill about 1,560 Olympic-sized swimming pools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually do a precise segregation of the wastewater,\u201d said Mr Tey.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have almost 20 channels of wastewater pipeline, and every pipeline we use different kinds of water treatment systems, so we actually can come out with different kinds of grades of water, and we reuse it for different operations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them can go to process steps, some of them can go to auxiliary operations such as cooling towers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company is exploring membrane-based treatment technologies, including reverse osmosis, which removes contaminants, and electrodeionisation, which uses electricity to remove dissolved impurities.<\/p>\n
It said combining advanced filtration and polishing technologies could further increase the amount of water that can be reused at higher quality standards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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