“Quantifying spatiotemporal impacts of the interaction of water scarcity and water use by the global semiconductor manufacturing industry”

Abstract

The high-tech semiconductor manufacturing sector is integral to the international electronics industry and was valued at over $400 billion USD in 2017. Intensive water use by this industry is well-documented and this work provides a spatially explicitly assessment of water use impacts by nearly 100% of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity. Both direct manufacturing water use and water use from electricity were considered as part of a facility’s total withdrawal. Manufacturing water withdrawals were estimated by using technology-specific water and electricity use data, reported at the semiconductor chip or wafer level from the life cycle literature and industry estimates. Electricity water use intensity (WUI) factors were gleaned from the literature and regional electricity WUI factors were derived for China and the U.S. Geolocation of semiconductor manufacturing facilities allowed for summation of water withdrawals at various spatial extents (i.e. watershed, country, and globally). This data was combined with calculated regional or country-level electricity water use factors to estimate total water withdrawals by a facility. Geolocation of data also allowed for calculation of watershed specific scarcity-weighted withdrawals. Scarcity-weighted withdrawals were ascertained by multiplying facility water withdrawal data by the AWaRE water scarcity characterization factor available for each of 202 watersheds associated with semiconductor manufacturing facilities. These data…