1996 Electronics Industry Environmental Roadmap - Civil and ...

Emerging Technologies
This chapter begins with a brief characterization of current processes in key areas of electronic
system development: IC fabrication, packaging, interconnect, and assembly, along with a
specific discussion of issues related to displays. The chapter then presents an overview of
significant issues in advanced electronics production drawn from a synthesis of several of the
major segment-specific roadmaps: SIA, IPC, NEMI, and OIDA. 17 The production trends
reflected in these roadmaps are considered specifically in light of their environmental
implications. Finally, the chapter identifies a set of “Grand Challenges” for environmental
excellence—several fundamental challenges that, if effectively met, could significantly improve
the state-of-the-art in environmentally conscious electronic systems manufacturing.
6.2 Overview of Current Processes
Since current processes are likely to form the evolutionary foundation for technological advances
through the immediate future, it is important to characterize the major processes of electronic
systems production and consider the environmental issues inherent at each stage. In doing so,
several contextual considerations relevant to the discussion in this chapter are important:
The focus of this chapter is advanced electronics production, not final product packaging
or use. Therefore, certain issues, such as technologies for energy conservation during use,
are not discussed.
It is fair to say that, in most cases, environmental considerations are not driving
technology evolution. The real forces driving technology advancement are price, cost,
performance, and market/user requirements. The exceptions to this occur when an
externally imposed mandate forces attention on a specific challenge—for example, CFC
elimination or alternatives to lead-based solders.
However, to the extent that the trend is toward smaller devices, fewer processing steps,
increased automation, etc., these evolving technologies will likely have a positive
environmental impact at the unit production level—i.e., less materials, less chemicals,
less waste related to each unit produced. The impact of this may be outweighed,
somewhat, by the increasing demand for electronic devices in every conceivable product,
and the resulting increase in total unit output. Generally speaking, the interest of
environmental process improvement will be served by the continuing development of
new technologies.
Furthermore, technology advances that have environmental implications at the upstream
processing stage may well have significant benefits in the later stages of systems development
and production. For example, material substitution in early production stages may decrease
waste implications throughout the entire process.
6.2.1 IC Fabrication
The complex process of manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) often consists of
over a hundred steps, during which many copies of an individual IC are formed on a single
17 Appendix A presents a comprehensive matrix detailing the primary findings and conclusions of each of these
roadmaps. We believe that this matrix also represents a template to which the findings from other roadmaps can
be added as they become available, i.e., USDC.
91