Technology-specific decarbonization roadmap for the semiconductor industry

Context

A recent attributional life-cycle assessment (ALCA) of the global semiconductor industry compared its cradle-to-gate Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions with an allocated share of the global climate carrying capacity. Across the tested allocation methods and uncertainty scenarios, the industry remained outside its allocated safe operating space. This indicates that substantial emission reductions are needed across direct process emissions, purchased energy, and the upstream supply chain.

The assessment shows the size of the sustainability gap, but not which technologies can close it most effectively. Current semiconductor decarbonization roadmaps include options such as renewable electricity, energy efficiency, fluorinated-gas abatement, alternative process gases, material circularity, and supplier decarbonization. These measures are often assessed separately and reported as relative improvements or reductions per wafer. This makes it difficult to determine whether they are sufficient to reduce total emissions as semiconductor production and technological complexity increase.

The effect of an intervention can also depend on how and where it is implemented. Energy-efficiency gains may be partly offset by production growth, while process-gas abatement can reduce direct emissions but increase energy or material use. Other measures may affect yield, supply chains, or end-of-life treatment. These interactions need to be considered when different technologies are compared.

This project will connect the existing ALCA baseline with technology-specific reduction measures and future deployment scenarios. The resulting roadmap will show which technologies can make the largest contribution to reducing the absolute sustainability gap, under which conditions, and over what timeframe.

Objective

The objective of this project is to develop a technology-specific decarbonization roadmap for the semiconductor industry. The project will compare a broad range of reduction measures, examine the most promising options in more detail, and assess their contribution at fab and industry level.

This will be achieved by:

• Defining a consistent approach to assess interventions, including their reduction potential, deployment potential, implementation timeframe, data quality, and possible burden shifting.
• Scaling intervention results from the relevant technical level to annual fab and global industry activity.
• Accounting for production growth, technology evolution, and interactions between measures where these affect the expected reduction.
• Comparing individual technologies and combined portfolios based on net emission reduction, uncertainty, implementation potential, and contribution to closing the sustainability gap.

Responsibilities

You will work with the sustainability team and, where possible, process, equipment, facilities, energy, and supply-chain specialists to assess semiconductor decarbonization options and develop the roadmap.

In practice, this will involve:

• Reviewing scientific literature, industry roadmaps, company targets, technology reports, supplier information, and available lifecycle data.
• Preparing and checking the data used to assess different interventions.
• Building and running scenarios for selected decarbonization measures.
• Comparing the results and identifying the most promising technologies and combinations.

Skills and Learning Objectives

Experience with life-cycle assessment is required. Familiarity with semiconductor manufacturing, absolute sustainability assessment, energy systems, process emissions, scenario analysis, or technology road mapping is an advantage.

During the project, you will develop skills in:

• Applying absolute sustainability concepts to an industrial sector.
• Interpreting technology and industry data for decarbonization assessment.
• Working with future growth and deployment assumptions.
• Assessing trade-offs and dependencies between different interventions.
• Turning technical results into a prioritized decarbonization roadmap.