IBM to recycle silicon for solar

IBM announced Tuesday that it has created a process allowing its manufacturing
facilities to repurpose otherwise scrap semiconductor wafers.

Since the silicon wafers need to be nearly flawless in order to be used in
computers, mobile phones, video games and other consumer electronics, the imperfect
ones are normally erased with acidic chemicals and discarded. IBM had been sandblasting
theirs to remove proprietary material. Some of the pieces, called "monitors,"
are reused for test purposes.

The new process cleans the silicon pieces with water and an abrasive pad leaving
them in better condition for reuse. The entire process to clean an 8-inch wafer
is about one minute. Eric White, the inventor of the process, said that IBM
can now get five or six monitor wafers out of one that would have been crushed
and discarded. The cleaned wafers can also be sold to the solar-cell industry,
which has a high demand for the silicon material to use in solar panels. White
said that shortage would need to be "extreme" to use the wafers in
consumer electronics and that IBM does not plan to do so.

The IBM site in Burlington, Vermont, has been using the process and reported
an annual savings in 2006 of more than US$500,000 dollars. Expansion of the
new technique has begun at IBM's site in East Fishkill, New York, and 2007 savings
estimates are more than $1.5 million. The Vermont and New York plants are IBM's
only semiconductor manufacturing sites.

Chris Voce, an analyst with Forrester Resarch, does not anticipate savings
for the end user, but added, "When a semiconductor company can improve
its process and drive efficiency into their manufacturing process, that's always
great for their margins, but it's even better when there are broader benefits
for the environment." Annually, IBM estimates that the semiconductor industry
discards as many as 3 million wafers worldwide.

IBM plans to patent the new process and provide details for the semiconductor
manufacturing industry.