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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Imec.netzero is a software model of a high-volume semiconductor fab that estimates the environmental impacts of making chips. It helps researchers and industry partners find manufacturing hotspots and assess possible improvements before changing production processes; its results are model outputs, not universal measurements of every fab.
What is Imec’s virtual fab?
Imec.netzero is a software-based virtual high-volume semiconductor fab. It combines information about manufacturing process flows and recipes with data on equipment, materials, utilities and fab operations to build a bottom-up inventory of integrated-circuit production. The model estimates impacts for current and future logic and memory technologies.
Imec launched a freely accessible public version on 14 November 2023. That version provides high-level information. A private version for partners uses the same underlying models and databases but offers more parameters, finer detail and modeling of future technologies. The platform is designed for semiconductor manufacturers and their supply chain, not as a consumer carbon calculator.
What environmental impacts does imec.netzero estimate?
The platform quantifies several impact categories rather than treating sustainability as a carbon-only question:
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- Greenhouse-gas emissions, including emissions associated with process chemicals and gases.
- Energy consumption.
- Water use.
- Material and mineral use.
Its life-cycle-assessment approach draws on benchmark data from equipment and materials suppliers, fabs, foundries and integrated-device manufacturers. This lets the model connect individual manufacturing steps and supporting infrastructure to a wider production inventory. The quality and relevance of an estimate still depend on the data and assumptions used for a particular scenario.
Which chipmaking processes stand out for emissions?
In an Imec assessment published in February 2023, lithography and etch together accounted for 45% of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions associated with fabricating 3 nm logic wafers. Imec’s February 2024 release summarized the contribution of lithography and etch as over 40% of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions for advanced logic nodes.
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These figures point to important opportunities in patterning and material removal, but they have defined boundaries: the 45% figure refers to a 3 nm logic-wafer assessment, and the later “over 40%” figure is a summary for advanced logic. They should not be read as a universal share for every fab, chip type or emissions-accounting boundary. Scope 1 and Scope 2 also do not represent every impact across a product’s full life cycle.
For broader context, Imec reported in 2024 that semiconductor devices fabricated in 2021 had a footprint of about 175 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent. That estimate covers device production for that year; it is not a figure for one manufacturing process or a current annual total.
How can a virtual fab help reduce manufacturing impacts?
A model can help teams identify which steps or supporting systems contribute most to a selected impact, then compare possible changes before attempting them in a production environment. Imec describes improvement directions including:
- Reducing consumption of fluorinated or conventional etch gases.
- Lowering the dose used in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.
- Simplifying process flows and optimizing recipes or material stacks.
- Shifting toward lower-impact energy sources.
- Improving water recirculation and reusing or recycling chemicals and ultrapure water.
These are potential directions to evaluate, not quantified savings or proof that a change has already delivered a specific fab-floor reduction. A modeled scenario can guide experiments and investment decisions, while production results require validation under the relevant tools, processes and operating conditions.
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How Imec’s SSTS program uses the model
Imec’s Sustainable Semiconductor Technologies and Systems (SSTS) program organizes the work around three linked aims:
- Assess: use the virtual fab to estimate impacts and identify hotspots.
- Improve: work collaboratively on high-impact processes in Imec’s fab and partner facilities.
- Disrupt: explore new technology and decision-making approaches that could change how impacts are addressed.
In this setup, the virtual fab is the assessment and scenario-modeling component of a broader effort. It does not replace process development or operational validation.
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Who contributes to the data ecosystem?
Imec’s public-access announcement says imec.netzero data are continuously benchmarked with partners across the semiconductor value chain. Named partners include Air Liquide, Applied Materials, ASM, ASML, Edwards, Kurita, Lam Research, SCREEN, Tokyo Electron, GlobalFoundries, Samsung Electronics and TSMC. Their participation illustrates the industrial scope of the effort; it does not mean that every partner supplies every data point or that the public version exposes partner-specific information.
How to assess a sustainability claim from a model
Before comparing two interventions or citing a modeled result, check that they use comparable boundaries and assumptions. Five questions help keep a comparison meaningful:
- Which impact category? Is the result about carbon, water, chemicals, minerals or energy? A reduction in one category does not automatically mean a reduction in the others.
- Where in the fab? Does the estimate concern a wafer-processing step, such as lithography or etch, or supporting infrastructure and sub-fab utilities?
- Which technology horizon? Is the scenario for a current production node or a future technology model?
- What accounting boundary? Does it cover Scope 1, Scope 2 or broader life-cycle impacts? These boundaries are not interchangeable.
- How mature is the result? Is it a modeled potential, an experiment or a demonstrated production-fab result?
Results also depend on assumptions such as yield, wafer volume, tool utilization, die size, energy mix and process recipes. A number from one scenario should therefore be attributed to its technology, boundary and assumptions rather than presented as the footprint of semiconductor manufacturing in general.
What the virtual fab can—and cannot—tell readers
Imec.netzero offers a structured way to examine how process choices and fab operations contribute to environmental impacts, then explore changes without first altering a live production line. Its public version makes high-level information accessible, while its more detailed private partner model supports deeper analysis and future-technology scenarios.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsIts strongest use is as a decision-support tool: it can help identify where to investigate and compare possible directions, but its estimates remain dependent on inputs and modeling boundaries. As Imec senior vice president of advanced patterning Steven Scheer put it in February 2023: “Defining strategies to reduce CO2 emissions while keeping the same patterning capabilities will be a huge effort, for which we have now reached a first milestone.”
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