IBM Turning Chip Industry Trash to Solar Industry Treasure

NEW YORK — IBM Corp. is announcing Tuesday that is has developed a way to easily refurbish scrap material left over from the creation of microchips so it can be used in solar energy panels, a process that could save money and help feed the solar industry's growing appetite for silicon.

Big Blue said it plans to share the technique with the semiconductor industry. Analysts say it could be widely adopted.

The semiconductor industry imprints patterns on silicon wafers to build the chips used in computers, video games, cell phones and other electronics. A small fraction of these thin silicon discs are scrapped, adding up to more than 3 million wafers discarded worldwide each year, according to industry and IBM estimates.

The scrap wafers, etched with patterns that companies consider intellectual property, are often crushed and sent to landfills.

IBM's new process uses existing wafer-polishing equipment to erase the patterns, said Thom Jagielski, environmental manager at the IBM chip plant in Burlington, Vt. that developed the technique. He said this allows wafers to be reused for equipment testing and later sold to solar panel manufacturers.

The 3 million scrapped wafers each year could be used to create solar panels to power 6,000 houses, IBM said.

"It's a simple process but it really returns benefits on so many different levels," Jagielski said. "Not only do we reduce our overall use of silicon, but then to be able to create a raw material for the solar panel industry is kind of a good story all the way around."

Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM has used the abrasion process for more than a year at the Vermont plant and is rolling it out at its chip factory in Fishkill, N.Y.

"It's a low-entry fee to do this," Jagielski said.

IBM's prominence in chip production means the process could affect many manufacturers, said Jim McGregor, an analyst with the technology research firm In-Stat.

"Whatever IBM develops get filtered down to their partners," he said. "That's a big chunk of the industry."

That, in turn, could lead to more partnerships between the semiconductor and solar energy industries and the sharing of technology and resources, McGregor said.

"It's a shot in the arm for the solar industry, which has been hurting," said Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group market research and consulting firm. "There hasn't been enough wafer material."

Most chip makers have scrapped leftover wafers when faced with the trouble and expense of reclaiming them internally or the risk of losing trade secrets by sending them out for recycling, McGregor said.

"There's always been concern that you never let raw wafers out unless they are highly controlled," McGregor said. He said the concern is over someone "backward engineering your product, learning what you did and how you did it."

Reusing scrap wafers as the "monitor" wafers used for equipment calibration and testing saves 90 percent of the energy that would be expended making a new one, Jagielski said. He said wafers can be reused this way half a dozen times.

Each abrasion session makes the wafer thinner, but the end product can still be used for solar panels, Jagielski said.

IBM said these lower energy demands also translate into lower emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming.

On the Web:

IBM: www.ibm.com