Mikrochipstrukturen mit grünem, leuchtendem Blatt

SMT Magazine

For a more sustainable world

14 October 2022 5 min read

If the energy consumption of our smartphones were to increase at the same rate as their performance, we would have to charge them every hour. Thanks to technologies from ZEISS SMT, microchip performance has increased – but with no increase in energy consumption.

ZEISS SMT employee screws EUV projection optics in clean room

For smaller structures

Just as we humans need more energy for longer distances or greater efforts, so it is with microchips and the computing operations they perform for us. Longer conduction paths and more demanding tasks require more energy input. Our job at ZEISS Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (SMT) is to make a more compact system architecture of microchips possible. Our high-precision optics for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV lithography) and our technologies for the production of Photomasks and Process control make an important contribution to this process.

To the SMT technologies

For more speed

Do you still remember how long an old PC took to boot up? The fact that this is no longer true is partly thanks to the mechanical hard drive (HDD) no longer having to increase momentum. Modern solid-state drives (SSD) work much faster. And because SSDs, unlike HDDs, no longer have mechanical components that consume energy and wear out through constant acceleration and rotation, they are more energy-efficient and robust – in other words, more sustainable!

For improved performance in the same space

The development of such technologies made mobile devices like the smartphone possible in the first place. Yet we still far from reaching the end of the development. The chip in Apple's iPhone has been the same size since the first iPhone version in 2007. The performance has increased significantly over the various generations, while the battery life – instead of getting shorter – has actually improved slightly.

For a networked future

Today's smartphone can remind me when to leave for an appointment, depending on the traffic on the route. The algorithm of my music streaming service suggests tracks that suit my taste. What may still seem like a nice gimmick in everyday life offers a lot of potential. Why do the heating and washing machine come on when the sun is just over the horizon and the PV system is available as a sustainable energy source? They are not networked – not yet. Behind the buzzwords "Internet of Things" (IoT) or "Industry 4.0" there are also numerous efforts to work more sustainably, more efficiently and consuming fewer resources.

New chip architectures and technologies are the basis for developing autonomous vehicles or AI-supported research into drugs and vaccines.

Dr. Thomas Schulze
Project Manager, Strategic Business Development

Logistik-Mitarbeiterin der ZEISS SMT mit Schreibbrett in Lagerhalle

For a climate-neutral value chain

Our end customers – such as the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) – are working together with their suppliers to reduce the energy consumption of their microchips even further – while at the same time continuously increasing their performance until 2040. Among other things, they are relying on new materials, system architectures and the innovations and product roadmaps of ZEISS SMT. But it is not only the products that are to become more sustainable: Apple, as the world's largest purchaser of microchips, wants to make the entire supply chain of its products climate-neutral by 2030. And we are contributing to this. Through our technologies for wafer lithography, photomasks and process control. And by aiming to be CO2 neutral ourselves as the ZEISS Group as early as 2025.