Simulation for an Energy-Efficient Semiconductor Manufacturing Network

The semiconductor industry plays an important role in reducing carbon emissions and facilitating CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> savings through energy-saving applications, while also generating a significant CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> footprint during the manufacturing process of chips. Despite this, microchips in end-applications have the potential to save CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> several times greater than the emissions generated. Chip manufacturers are required to be transparent in reporting the CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions and customers are demanding to reduce the footprint and to increase the handprint. In this paper, we present a simulation study which analyzes the energy consumption of two exemplary semiconductor products to assess the ratio of fixed and variable energy consumption. In addition, the paper analyzes the most energy consuming processes and the linkage between the capacity utilization and the energy consumption in a typical semiconductor facility. The paper suggests for future work to analyze the handprint as well and to investigate the relation between the footprint and handprint.