The Go gRIEn project team at the Ilmenau School of Green Electronics (ISGE) is researching sustainability in microchip production. In future, fewer environmentally harmful chemicals are to be used in the microstructuring of glass.
Whether electric cars, smartphones or smart homes - the demand for semiconductors is constantly growing and with it the ecological footprint of the electronics industry. A significant part of this environmental impact is caused by the structuring of microchips. Tiny, high-precision patterns are created in materials such as silicon using etching processes. It is these structures that give the microchips their functionality: they conduct electricity, insulate sensitive areas or help to transmit light signals precisely.
Etching processes, including dry chemical etching, are widely used in semiconductor production. Not only are they energy-intensive, they also release harmful gases. For example, when fluorine-containing etching gases are used, fluorocarbon compounds are formed, which are known as perpetual chemicals. They are not degradable in nature and can accumulate in the environment for decades. Complex cleaning systems in production facilities can retain a large proportion of these substances, but cannot completely decompose them. In view of the global growth in chip production, the development of more environmentally friendly manufacturing processes is therefore becoming increasingly important.
Microelectronics processes without environmentally harmful chemicals
The research team led by Dr. Ulrike Brokmann (Materials Science), Dr. Christoph Weigel (Microsystems Engineering) and doctoral student Anant Bhardwaj aims to develop new approaches that make it possible to largely dispense with harmful chemicals during the etching process and replace them with more environmentally friendly alternatives. Specifically, the research team is focusing on reactive ion etching (RIE), a key technology in microchip production. The team's aim is to significantly reduce the fluorine-containing and climate-damaging process gases used in this process - without compromising on technical quality, as Dr. Brokmann explains:
We not only want to improve the most environmentally harmful processes, but also identify alternatives in the long term. This includes new gas mixtures, better process control and a deep understanding of the interactions between the material and the etching process.
For this project, the project group is focusing on a well-known material that has so far been used comparatively little in microelectronics: glass. With the help of plasma etching, a process that is usually used for silicon, the researchers want to investigate how silicate glass and glass ceramics can be precisely processed without environmentally harmful process gases. Dr. Weigel sees great potential in the material:
Glass is still less researched in microelectronics production than silicon. We hope that our knowledge-based approaches will also create the basis for more environmentally friendly micro- and nanostructuring of other materials in microsystems technology and microelectronics - without sacrificing performance.
Sustainable engineering through interdisciplinary collaboration
With their basic research, the scientists want to make a contribution to more sustainable chip production, says Dr. Weigel. To achieve this, they are pooling their expertise and enabling PhD student Anant Bhardwaj to shed light on scientific issues from different perspectives and build a bridge between basic research and potential technology applications. Together with his team, the june scientist wants to create the basis for more environmentally friendly processes that can be used in microelectronics in the long term:
I benefit enormously from the expertise of my two supervisors and learn how real interdisciplinary research works. In addition, the ISGE brings us together with other groups to take a holistic view of the entire life cycle of sustainable electronics and take an important step towards sustainable engineering together.
Ilmenau School for Environmentally Friendly Electronics (ISGE) series
In the UNIonline series on the Ilmenau School of Green Electronics (ISGE), we present the project teams that want to make a contribution to more environmentally friendly IT with their research. Funded by the Carl Zeiss Foundation, the ISGE brings researchers together on an interdisciplinary basis to make electronics more sustainable - from intelligent materials and energy-saving data processing to durable electrical products.