Sustainability
Sustainable semiconductor water use
Semiconductor manufacturing depends on exacting process conditions, which makes water efficiency a technical systems problem rather than a simple operational afterthought.
Published on 03/02/2026
Efficiency without compromising process integrity
The industry’s challenge is to reduce freshwater dependency while maintaining the stability required by advanced process steps. That raises questions about purification, recirculation, monitoring, and process redesign at several layers of the fab.
imec can add value by treating sustainability as an engineering discipline with measurable tradeoffs rather than a detached reporting exercise.