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Semiconductor fabs make ultrapure water (UPW) for wafer rinsing, cleaning, and other process steps, then treat used water according to what it contains and where it may go next. Some treated water can serve later rinses or facility uses such as cooling and scrubbers; returning reclaimed water to the UPW system’s front end is another possible route when its quality is suitable. The treatment train and reuse choices depend on the fab, its water sources, and its process and discharge requirements.
Where water fits into semiconductor manufacturing
Water serves both manufacturing processes and facility operations. In its historical technical material, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) describes ultrapure or deionized water used to formulate acids, rinse wafers, collect exhaust gases, clean equipment, and support wafer slicing and grinding. Separate facility needs include cooling and abatement. These uses have different water-quality needs, so water supplied to a fab is not all treated to the same specification.
UPW is made by removing impurities from incoming water to meet process needs. The relevant industry guide, SEMI F63, addresses specifying, monitoring, and controlling UPW quality through the point of use. It is a quality-management reference, not evidence that every fab uses an identical treatment design.
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- Receive and condition source water. A fab may use one or more water sources. Incoming water is conditioned for its intended uses; water selected for UPW production receives further treatment.
- Make and polish UPW. EPA historical material describes pretreatment by deionization. A separate EPA project report describes a makeup loop using membranes followed by a polishing loop with ion exchange and ultraviolet oxidation. Those are documented examples, not a universal current process specification.
- Use water in manufacturing and facility systems. Water contacting processes such as rinsing, cleaning, etching, or polishing can pick up contaminants. Other water supports facility operations and may follow a different route.
- Keep wastewater streams distinct where needed. The stream’s chemistry and intended destination determine treatment. The EPA’s 2022 industry study identifies UPW reject, photolithography solvents and rinses, and polishing among reported wastewater sources at a surveyed 300 mm fab.
- Treat, reuse, or discharge. Treatment is selected for the stream and the required reuse quality or discharge route. Reuse can reduce demand for new source water, but it does not mean that every treated stream is suitable for every use.
Why fabs treat wastewater by stream
Wastewater from different process areas can contain different contaminants. Combining streams without considering their chemistry and destination can make treatment less appropriate; the EPA’s facility survey instead shows site-specific combinations of treatment operations. The examples below describe operations documented in that survey, not a complete design recipe.
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| Documented operation | Example of its role in surveyed fab systems |
|---|---|
| Clarification and chemical precipitation | Operations included in different facility treatment arrangements to remove contaminants from wastewater. |
| Filtration or microfiltration | Used as part of some surveyed treatment configurations. |
| pH adjustment | Applied in some configurations as part of wastewater treatment. |
| Pollutant-specific treatment | Examples include calcium hydroxide precipitation for fluoride and treatment approaches for copper. |
These examples should not be read as a recommended train for a particular fab. Selection requires stream composition, the intended reuse quality or discharge route, and site constraints. EPA’s electrical and electronic components effluent guidelines and permitting resources identify the relevant industry framework under 40 CFR Part 469. The facility’s applicable rule and permits govern compliance; the EPA’s 2022 industry study is a technical survey, not a substitute for those requirements.
Where treated water may be reused
Reuse is a matter of matching treated-water quality to the next use. SEMI F98 addresses reuse-water treatment systems in semiconductor facilities and lists potential destinations ranging from cooling and irrigation to the UPW-system front end. The EPA survey also records examples of recycling water to later rinses, cooling towers, and scrubbers.
| Potential destination | What the route means |
|---|---|
| Later-stage rinses | Reclaimed water may be used in a subsequent rinse stage when it meets that use’s quality needs. |
| Cooling towers or other cooling uses | Water can be routed to facility cooling rather than used in a wafer-process step. |
| Exhaust scrubbers or point-of-use abatement | Reuse can support facility air-pollution-control systems. |
| Irrigation or thermal processes | These are additional potential reuse applications identified by SEMI F98. |
| UPW-system front end | Some reclaimed water may be returned upstream for further treatment if its quality is suitable for that system. |
SEMI F98 is a guide to reuse-system planning and operation, not a blanket approval to route any treated wastewater to any destination. A reuse project should be evaluated against the receiving use’s water-quality needs, source-water and pretreatment conditions, wastewater contaminants and segregation, treatment train, discharge obligations, and site constraints. Because actual arrangements differ among facilities, no single treatment technology is universally best without a defined influent, target quality, scale, and reuse or discharge objective.
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What published water-use figures do—and do not—show
Published figures describe particular samples, facilities, or historical examples. They should not be treated as universal present-day fab benchmarks.
| Figure | Scope and qualification |
|---|---|
| 4.25 billion gallons of median UPW use in 2021, about 1.16 million gallons per day | NIST’s 2024 assessment reports this median across a sample of 29 semiconductor fabrication facilities for 2021. It is a sample median, not a universal per-fab average or a current figure. |
| 40–70% of received water recycled | NIST’s 2024 assessment cites this as an estimate, attributed to IEEE (2023), for an average semiconductor fabrication facility using conventional on-site wastewater treatment as of 2022. It is not a measurement for every fab. |
| Approximately 2 billion gallons (7.6 million cubic metres) internally recycled in 2010 | EPA’s 2012 Guidelines for Water Reuse recounts this historical Intel example and describes it as equivalent to 25% of total water withdrawals. It does not establish Intel’s current performance. |
| 1.25–1.5 gallons of source water per gallon of UPW | EPA’s 2012 Guidelines for Water Reuse recounts this as a historical Intel efficiency example. It is not a current industry-wide yield. |
The NIST sample median and the separately attributed recycling estimate measure different things, so they should not be combined into a single typical-fab water balance. Differences in source water, manufacturing mix, treatment design, and site requirements also limit direct comparisons between facilities.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which references address UPW and reuse
- SEMI F63 concerns UPW used in semiconductor processing, including quality specification, monitoring, and control through point of use.
- SEMI F98 addresses reuse-water treatment systems in semiconductor processing facilities and possible reuse destinations.
- EPA’s 2022 industry study documents wastewater sources and treatment examples from surveyed facilities; it is a technical survey rather than a replacement for current regulatory requirements.
- EPA’s 2012 Guidelines for Water Reuse recount historical examples, including the Intel water-recycling and source-water-to-UPW figures above.
For a specific facility, standards editions, current regulations, and permit conditions should be checked against their current official listings. The described treatment paths and reuse options are engineering possibilities, not a claim that a particular fab uses all of them.
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