IBM (NYSE: IBM) said it has eliminated all known uses of two toxic compounds from its chip manufacturing processes. These compounds are perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
Several years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, followed by the European Union and other countries, began putting in place restrictions on the manufacture and use of these chemicals in consumer products, where they were commonly uses as a stain or water repellent. Research showed they are persistent in the environment and bioaccumulative--they can build up in the environment and gradually increase in concentration over time.
These compounds remain permitted for use in semiconductor manufacturing. Small amounts had been used for photolithography--the process of imprinting a chip design onto a silicon chip--and for the process that etches the chip pattern on the chip. IBM has been working over the last decade to find alternatives, and has now removed the chemicals from its semiconductor processes.
IBM prohibited the compounds' use in the development of new materials in 2005, in new manufacturing applications in 2007, and set a goal to eliminate all uses of these chemicals by 2010.
"Developing alternatives for these chemicals was an ambitious technological challenge," said Michael Cadigan, general manager, Microelectronics at IBM. "The transition to the new formulations had to be implemented and qualified across a large array of processes without impacting customer product delivery commitments. In addition, several companies in at least five countries have had access to this leadership solution through their technology development alliances with IBM."
