UF is turning to AI for new semiconductor research. Sustainability remains questionable.

Roughly the size of a fingernail, semiconductor chips give life to modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, smartphones, cars, and national security systems.

It is also predicted to cause irreparable damage to the planet.

Compared to the slow annual growth rate of 2% in global energy production, energy consumption from semiconductor computing doubles every three years. And according to the 2020 Semiconductor Decadal Plan, the global supply of silicon, a key chip material, could be depleted by 2040 as global demand for data storage soars.

Since 2014, industry water use has also increased fivefold, as have chemical hazards and greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Department of Energy’s EES2 Roadmap released last year.

U.S.-based experts are exploring alternative ways to scale semiconductors while minimizing environmental damage, and UF researchers are playing a key role in finding those solutions. Masu.

digital twin

The Biden-Harris Administration Act, CHIPS for America, provided $285 million to launch the SMART USA Institute in 2024 to leverage AI to boost domestic semiconductor chip production. The institute has seven locations across the United States, including one covering the Florida/Caribbean region.

The goal was to provide foreign chip producers with a boost after the coronavirus pandemic cut off access to critical supply hubs and threatened to put U.S. technology, including national security systems, at risk. is to reduce dependence on

Taiwan, a small independent island in Asia, is a semiconductor hub that manufactures more than 90% of the world’s most advanced chips, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. It is also caught in the crossfire of decades-old tensions with neighboring global superpower China, which still claims the island as its own territory. Other countries, including the United States, now fear economic retaliation from China if they recognize Taiwan as an autonomous state.

“If China takes action, our entire semiconductor supply chain will be disrupted,” said Volker Soger, Florida/Caribbean Hub Director and SMART USA Institute Deputy Chief Digital Officer.

In response to the intensifying international situation, the United States has encouraged competition to develop ways to independently produce semiconductors domestically.

As the state’s research focal point, UF will receive $20 million in SMART USA federal funds for the university’s supercomputer HiPerGator to create AI-generated copies of the actual tools and machines used in semiconductor manufacturing. I collected it. These models, known as digital twins, allow scientists at the Florida/Caribbean hub to test virtual scenarios and streamline manufacturing before expending resources on physical rebuilds.

Sorger, who is also an endowed professor of semiconductor photonics at Lines College, said the SMART USA Institute will reduce manufacturing costs and time by nearly half, increase the number of chips available in each batch by 40%, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within five years. It said it would reduce the amount by 30%. year.

Sauger said if environmental concerns are ignored, the industry’s unsustainable trajectory could lead to even more serious challenges in chip manufacturing and the end of services that rely on cutting-edge technology.

“If we ran out of semiconductors from one day to the next, basically 90-something percent of all business would stop,” he said.

The institute plans to be ready for sustainability by the middle of this year, with a focus on reducing costs and saving resources through digital twins.

Sauger said the Florida/Caribbean hub could also collaborate with the existing Florida Semiconductor Institute, which includes researchers from the University of Florida and other states such as computing, chemistry and physics. The company is said to be working on applying its expertise to the development of domestic industry.

“Brute force” calculation

There’s one question that Juan Manuel Restrepo-Flores, a new addition to the Florida Semiconductor Institute, asks himself first before designing and implementing a chemical procedure. “Is my process sustainable?”

An assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Florida proposed generating AI calculations to test the environmental impact of chip manufacturing. Restrepo-Flores and his team look at multiple factors beyond greenhouse gas emissions, but he said the industry often focuses solely on greenhouse gas emissions.

Restrepo-Florez and his team use HiPerGator for “brute force” calculations and machine learning, allowing them to efficiently and sustainably test millions or even billions of virtual situations. They examine semiconductor manufacturing processes through the lens of emissions, ecosystem capacity, and natural resource limitations. This is a broader approach than most studies.

“Considering these alternatives manually would take forever,” he said. “Literally forever.”

The results could reveal a select few successes in each test, which could later be taken into account to improve chip manufacturing, he said.

The “needle” in the chemical haystack

Joshua Moon, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Florida and a new member of the Florida Semiconductor Institute, is the experimenter behind Restropo Flores’ digital simulation coin. The subject of President Moon’s conspiracy: chemicals forever leaching into semiconductor wastewater, another domino effect in the production process.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) find their way into American homes in the form of nonstick cookware, water-resistant clothing, cleaning products, and other common items. These synthetic chemicals, which are also used in semiconductors, can cause long-term health effects such as cancer, liver and thyroid problems, weakened immune responses and infertility, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

These substances degrade slowly and also have negative effects on the environment through soil, water, and air pollution. Six of the thousands of PFAS are monitored by the EPA in drinking water.

Problematic components of PFAS often persist in a much wider ocean of harmless substances, making them difficult to identify, Moon said.

“Essentially, it’s like trying to pull a permanently present chemical out of water; it’s like trying to pull a needle out of a haystack,” he says.

Moon, who specializes in finding materials that can trap excess carbon, also researches ways to solve semiconductor chemistry problems. PFAS seeps into and sticks to wastewater, and certain water-swellable gels may have the ability to absorb PFAS, he said.

Materials used for this work traditionally contain a chemical called fluorine to capture similarly fluorinated PFAS, but that strategy allows even more chemicals to segregate into the water. Possibly. Moon said he chose to use a method comparable to Britafilter’s chemistry to achieve the same goal, keeping the experiment free of fluorine.

The chip manufacturing process is divided into several segments, and some processes may produce wastewater streams that hide contrasting sets of PFAS. He added that special absorbent materials are needed to purify any stream because there are many variations, and some are completely incompatible with others.

President Moon said he wants to collect and test wastewater samples directly from semiconductor manufacturing.

“I would say we are not there yet in terms of finding the perfect solution,” he said, in a statement that hints at an uncharted path for the industry.

Please contact Rylan DiGiacomo-Rapp at rdigiacomo-rapp@alligator.org. X Follow her at @rylan_digirapp.