Sector
Semiconductor manufacturing
Chip fabrication requires ultrapure water for wafer rinsing — water so pure it is aggressive, with resistivity around 18.2 MΩ·cm and essentially no dissolved anything. Producing it is itself water intensive.
Key facts
- Part of
- Industry
- Ultrapure water resistivity
- 18.2 MΩ·cm at 25 °C
- Typical large fab withdrawal
- on the order of 10 Ml/day
- Reclaim rates at leading fabs
- frequently above 85%
What drives water use in this sector
- Wafer starts and process node — smaller nodes require more rinse steps
- Recycling and reclaim rate
- Source water quality, which determines pretreatment burden
Relationships
- Part of: Industry
Related intelligence
Sources
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — AQUASTAT — Global Information System on Water and Agriculture. Public but restricted · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
- United States Geological Survey — Estimated Use of Water in the United States. Open · US Government work — public domain
- International Energy Agency — Water–energy nexus analysis. Public but restricted · Publisher terms — public access, reuse not clearly granted