Energy

The manufacture of semiconductors is not possible without the input of resources and energy. The energy input is particularly high in the frontend production during wafer structuring. The reduction of energy consumption is therefore one of our prime environmental goals, which we pursue with sustainable, innovative concepts. In this way we have been able to achieve substantial savings in energy consumption at our European frontend sites, despite increasing process complexity.

Our success in reducing the energy consumption of our manufacturing is vividly expressed by the so-called “negajoules ” of our European frontend manufacturing sites from 2002 to 2007.

The cumulated energy not being used in that period exceeds e.g. a full years output at the coal-fired power plant in Goldenhagen, Germany. According to the high level of energy efficiency that we have reached, the search for further improvements is getting even more challenging. However, we have integrated energy efficiency requirements in our global management system IMPRES (Infineon Integrated Management Program for Environment, Safety and Health), and launched several projects and initiatives to minimize our energy consumption at all levels of operations – in production, facilities as well as the office areas.

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“Negajoules” – Energy not consumed due to enhanced energy efficiency at Infineon’s European frontend manufacturing sites

In addition to our companywide resource and energy management concepts, our individual sites also implement individual economy measures. As an example: semiconductors are manufactured in cleanrooms with complex air conditioning systems. Various heat and cold recovery systems are deployed to reduce the heating and cooling input. These systems use heat from a recirculating cooling system, for instance, to preheat the cold outdoor air in the winter. All the buildings for the frontend production in Regensburg/Germany have been equipped with these systems since 2002. In 2005, the energy recovered from the air conditioning system was approximately 9,000 megawatt-hours, equivalent to around 902,000 cubic meters of natural gas or the heating energy needed for 300 average 4-person households. This allowed carbon dioxide emissions to be reduced by 1,782 tons per annum.

At our Headquarter at Campeon near Munich as well as at our manufacturing sites in Regensburg and Villach we have launched energy efficiency campaigns in 2007 to train and educate our employees, and to increase the general awareness. Those projects pay off – for the environment as well as economically.