KYOTO, JAPAN-- May 26, 2022 -- SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions Co., Ltd. (SCREEN SPE), a subsidiary of SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd., has announced it will increase its efforts to reduce the company’s environmental overall impact.

The SCREEN Group is committed to both achieving a sustainable global society and to improving its sustainable value (social value) and has formulated a medium-term management plan titled Sustainable Value 2023 targeting these goals. The plan identifies specific issues in each of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) fields.

Concerning the environment, SCREEN is working to provide products and services that actively contribute to the reduction of ecological burden. Its efforts include improving the environmental performance of its products, reducing the effects of its business activities on climate change, promoting effective utilization of water resources, increasing recycling of products and parts, and helping to preserve biodiversity.

Concretely, SCREEN SPE seeks to reduce the impact that semiconductor manufacturing processes have on the environment and contribute to the realization of a sustainable global society. As a leading company in the area of cleaning equipment, it is also committed to supporting the growth of the entire semiconductor industry over the long term.

Demand for semiconductor devices has increased on a global scale in recent years, mainly due to the widespread adoption of 5G-compatible smartphones and the growing requirements of data centers accompanying the digital transformation (DX) now occurring worldwide. The growing demand for in-vehicle systems required for electric vehicles and self-driving cars and the rapid spread of IoT infrastructure, especially for industrial equipment, are also driving this change.

However, as reliance on semiconductor devices has grown, the environmental impact created by their manufacturing processes has become a shared concern for the entire semiconductor industry. Issues that must be addressed include high energy consumption and the use of chemical substances, scarce materials, and ultrapure water, and the emission of greenhouse gases.

With this trend in mind, SCREEN SPE has agreed to join the Sustainable Semiconductor Technologies and Systems (SSTS)[1] research program led by imec, a world-leading research and innovation hub based in Leuven, Belgium. The SSTS program is designed to help the semiconductor industry reduce its overall environmental impact.
Led by Director Lars-Ake Ragnarsson, the new program leverages imec’s expertise in the areas of infrastructure, technology, and equipment. This includes using concrete, highly reliable models plus detailed carbon footprint analyses to predict the effects of manufacturing processes on the environment. The initiative is ultimately intended to support the entire semiconductor value chain in decreasing its ecological footprint.

By joining the SSTS program, SCREEN SPE hopes to accelerate its development of environmentally friendly manufacturing equipment, particularly semiconductor cleaning and coater/developer systems. It expects the decision to enable it to provide the industry with products offering even greater environmental performance.