Philips Semiconductors
Thyristors and Triacs The Environment
Environmental Policy
Philips Semiconductors is a global company committed
to achieving a leading competitive position in the
electronics industry through continuous improvements in
product innovation, manufacturing excellence, customer
service and environmental protection.
Environmental protection is an integral part of our
business policy and is based on four principles:
> Sustainable development - development of products
and processes that have minimal effect on the quality of
the environment today and in the future.
> Prevention is better than cure.
> The total effect on the environment is what counts -
embodied in the development of products whose
production (including energy usage), operation and
disposal at end of life have minimal adverse effect on the
environment.
> Open contact with the authorities and customers.
As a leading manufacturer of integrated circuits and
discrete semiconductors, Philips Semiconductors
regards environmental protection as a major issue. In
contrast to many industries, semiconductor manufacture
uses relatively few toxic and hazardous materials.
Nevertheless it is always our policy to follow working
practicesthatreducetotheabsoluteminimumanychance
of these materials passing into the environment. Every
opportunity is taken to refine our manufacturing
processes to reduce energy and water consumption and
produce as little impact on the surroundings as possible.
Certification
Philips Semiconductors was among the first companies
in the world to implement certifiable Environmental
Management Systems in line with the ISO 14001
environmental standard. We expect all of our
manufacturing centres to be certified before 1999.
We were also one of the first international companies to
introduceaninternalEnvironmentalNetworkmeetingISO
14001 requirements.
ISO 14001
TheessentialelementsofanEnvironmentalManagement
System meeting ISO 14001 requirements are:
> An organisation and well-defined procedures for
handling environmental issues.
> Clearly-defined areas of responsibility within the
organisationandaframeworkforsettingupandreviewing
environmental objectives.
> Awareness of environmental factors plus a clear
improvement plan prioritising actions on reducing
environmental impact.
> A published policy of continuous improvement on
environmental issues.
As with Quality standards, companies must be
periodicallyaudited, usually by anexternal party, to verify
that they are complying with the requirements.
Gaining certification
As part of the process of gaining environmental
certification such as ISO 14001, the headings below
describe just some of the work carried out by the Philips
Semiconductors sites worldwide.
REDUCING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Examples of work carried in this area include:
Replacing nickel leadframes by copper leadframes to
reducethequantityofnickelpassingintotheenvironment,
both in production and at end-of-life disposal;
Research into finding suitable alternatives to antimony
and bromine which are used as flame retardants in
semiconductor encapsulations;
Finding suitable alternatives to toxic beryllia in
semiconductors, for example aluminium nitride.
INVOLVING PARTNERS
We require our suppliers and subcontractors to be
environmentally responsible, to have their own
environmental policy and improvement plans and to
record environmental information on all raw materials
supplied to us. Future preferred suppliers will also be
required to have ISO 14001 certification.
LOW-POWER DESIGNS
Continuing developments in our power semiconductors
and integrated circuits produce more efficient operation,
leading to lower power dissipation, cooler operation and
lower drain on the power supply. This pays dividends
whatever the power source. In the caseof batterypower,
fewer batteries mean fewer problems from battery
disposal.
CUTTING ENERGY CONSUMPTION
Effortshavebeenmadeandareongoingtoreduceenergy
consumption within the company. The overall goal is to
improve the efficiency of energy consumption by 25%
before the year 2000.
Energy-saving programmes include:
Maintaining clean-air conditions at the work surface by
the use of mini-environments within clean-rooms. This
can lead toreductions of up to 60% in clean-room energy
usage;
Replacing old inefficient lighting with new equipment
which uses electronic ballasts and controls;
Making the workforce aware of good energy-saving
practices which are as relevant in the home as they are
in the workplace.
REDUCING CHEMICAL EMISSIONS
Efforts are constantly in progress to reduce chemical
emissions. These efforts include:
Improvements to manufacturing processes to reduce the
emissions of perfluorinated compounds and volatile
organic compounds;
Alternatives introduced for damaging organic materials
likeethylglycol ethersandmethanolinphoto-lithographic
processes.
September 1997
Philips Semiconductors
Thyristors and Triacs The Environment
ODC-FREE
In the elimination of ozone-depleting chemicals from its
production processes, Philips Semiconductors can claim
major successes. As early as May 1993, all plants had
eliminated chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs) from their
manufacturing processes. This led the way to a complete
phasing out of all Class I and Class II ODCs (listed in the
1986 Montreal Protocol) from our products and
manufacturing processes in compliance with the US
Clean Air Act.
RECYCLING
Chemicals and water used in production processes are
cleaned and recycled for re-use where, previously, they
would have been disposed of. In some cases where we
cannot re-use waste materials in our manufacturing
processes, they are still of sufficient purity for other
industries who buy them for their own manufacturing
processes.
Examples of waste product re-use are:
Supplying cleaned water from production processes for
landscaping irrigation and for supporting other local
industries;
Supplying reject wafers to the aluminium industry to be
used aspure silicon additives duringaluminium smelting;
Re-using sulphuric acid in-house for cleaning furnace
tubes and supplying it to third parties for use in
electroplating;
The recycling and re-use on-site of solvents such as
acetone, isopropanol and N-methyl pyrrolidone.
PAPER AND CARDBOARD REDUCTION
Ourparentcompanyhassetatargettoreducethevolume
ofpaperandcardboardusedinpacking materialsby15%
by the year 2000. Philips Semiconductors has already
passed this target by 1997 with a reduction over the
previous 3 years of more than 20%.
REDUCED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF PACKING
We are reducing the impact of used packing material on
the environment by promoting recycling. To make this
easierwehaveswitchedto"monomaterial" (forexample,
from aluminium-lined boxes to carbon-coated boxes)
Other measures include:
Switching from two-piece to one-piece boxes;
Changing from boxes of white cardboard (which require
bleach in manufacture) to brown recycled cardboard;
Using water-based inks (without heavy metals) for
marking.
All parts are marked with recycling symbols and the
material used (for example, "PVC" in the case of plastic
device tubes).
We actively promote re-use of reels and trays used for
discrete semiconductors and integrated circuits. This is
helpedbymarkingtheboxeswithlabelsgivinganaddress
to contact to arrange collection of used reels and trays.
Philips is also cooperating with other manufacturers to
establish global standards for these materials.
As a result ofthese actions, our new packing designs are
easier to recycle, use less material and are nearly 40%
lighter than old designs.
SEMICONDUCTOR CONTENT
We were the first semiconductor manufacturer to publish
full details of the chemical content of its products and
packaging. This assists manufacturers who wish to
evaluate the environmental impact from initial purchase
to end-of-life disposal of using our products.
September 1997
