We often say that chips are the most precise and technologically advanced products in the development of human civilization to date, and the process of chip manufacturing is a massive, precise, and complex entity, like engraving on a strand of hair or finding a specific grain of sand in a desert and carving a castle on it with fine detail.
In addition to technological support, there is another lesser-known yet extremely important issue behind semiconductor manufacturing—its high electricity consumption. Not to mention the air conditioners, computers, and refrigerators commonly seen in our daily lives, even power-hungry industries like automobile factories and oil refineries must defer to the semiconductor manufacturing process.
According to a study published in the journal “Water Cycle,” the semiconductor industry consumed 149 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2021, enough to supply the electricity needs of a city with a population of over 25 million for an entire year.
01
“Power-hungry” giants
Taking TSMC, the world’s largest chip foundry, as an example, according to statistics, TSMC’s electricity consumption reached 12.4 billion kilowatt-hours in 2018, and by 2022, this number had risen to an astonishing 21 billion kilowatt-hours. The proportion of electricity used by TSMC in the entire Taiwan region also increased from 4.6% in 2018 to 7.5% in 2022.
What does 21 billion kilowatt-hours mean? It is equivalent to the electricity demand of 5 million households in a city for an entire year!
Other major companies like Intel and Samsung also have considerable electricity demands, consuming billions to tens of billions of kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. According to news reports, tech giant Samsung operates six semiconductor manufacturing plants in South Korea, accounting for 3% of the country’s energy consumption in 2021.
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Why is chip manufacturing so power-consuming?
Some may ask:
Why does making a chip consume so much electricity? Well, this starts with the semiconductor production process:
First, there is photolithography. Photolithography is the most precise step in semiconductor manufacturing and also the most “power-hungry” step.
In this process, photolithography is used to transfer the circuit pattern onto a silicon wafer. As modern semiconductor chips become smaller, photolithography requires higher intensity light sources and more complex equipment, and the operation of these devices consumes a large amount of electricity. Moreover, during the photolithography process, the equipment generates high temperatures, which simultaneously require constant cooling.
According to Bloomberg, a current model of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine consumes about 1 megawatt of electricity, which is equivalent to the average energy consumption of a Spanish household for four months.
The photolithography stage typically accounts for about 20%-30% of the total electricity consumption in the entire semiconductor production process. Additionally, since the operation of the lithography machines requires strict temperature control and a cleanroom environment, the reliance on system and air purification equipment has gradually increased its total electricity consumption.
After photolithography, every subsequent step, including etching, cleaning and drying, wafer back-end processing, and packaging, also requires a large amount of electricity to power equipment, temperature control systems, and testing devices, among others. Among these steps, during the cleaning process, not only is a large amount of electricity required, but a significant amount of water is also needed, which will be discussed in more detail later.
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The major trend of industry transformation
Overall, the electricity consumption of semiconductor companies is enormous and continues to rise. Especially at the 7-nanometer and smaller process nodes, the complexity of the process increases further, and the demand for manufacturing equipment and stable environments during production leads to even higher electricity consumption.
Taking TSMC as an example, its next-generation chip production lines require several times more electricity per year than traditional processes. For the company, power consumption is not only an operating cost but also a significant challenge for the future in terms of environmental protection and sustainability.
To address the headache of “power consumption,” semiconductor manufacturers are not sitting idle. In order to reduce energy consumption, major companies have adopted several energy-saving measures:
Adopting green energy: Solar and wind energy have become the “saviors” for chip factories. TSMC plans to source half of its electricity from renewable energy by 2025.
The large-scale introduction of solar and wind energy into factories has reduced the burden on traditional power grids. Samsung Electronics has also increased solar energy facilities in its global factories!
Improving equipment efficiency: Making machines “save” electricity. Semiconductor factories continue to upgrade their equipment. For example, by updating to energy-efficient lithography machines, improving cooling systems, and replacing old equipment. This not only reduces electricity consumption but also extends the lifespan of the equipment, achieving two goals with one effort.
Of course, there is also the introduction of artificial intelligence and big data management in electricity management, with smart detection of each device’s consumption, optimizing power distribution, and avoiding unnecessary waste, among other measures.
With the increasing use of renewable energy and the implementation of more efficient energy-saving equipment, the power-hungry situation in chip manufacturing is expected to gradually improve. In the future, factories might really be able to operate using solar power. However, while the vision is promising, how it works in practice remains to be seen.
It still depends on the actual situation~
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