IBM to ship scrap wafers direct to solar cell producers...

[skids]

...This only helps with about 13MW worth of solar end-product, but it's something at least. Scrap silicon
normally would have to be smashed and remelted/recut into wafers -- IBM has figured out how to take off the
"ink" on misprinted wafers so they can be used directly by wafer-based cell manufacturers. It's more
impressive as a waste control measure than as a boon to the solar industry, but kudos where kudos are due:

Through the new reclamation process, IBM says more efficiently remove the intellectual property from the wafer surface, making wafers available either for reuse in internal manufacturing calibration as "monitor wafers" or for sale to the solar cell industry, which must meet a growing demand for the same silicon material to produce photovoltaic cells for solar panels.

IBM intends to offer the process to the broader semiconductor manufacturing industry.

While reuse is a key result of the new process IBM said one of its primary chip development sites in Vermont, IBM Burlington, saved over half-a-million dollars in 2006 with the process. The projected ongoing annual savings for 2007 is nearly $1.5 million and the one-time savings for reclaiming stockpiled wafers is estimated to be more than $1.5 million.Another key challenge in reclaiming silicon is protecting intellectual property information.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/21291

[NNadir]

1. Does this mean we should ask the Chinese if we can have the computers we've been dumping there back?

[skids]

2. Actually we've been dumping it India and Pakistan too...

...all over Asia and Africa.


http://svtc.etoxics.org/site/PageServer?pagename=svtc_publications

But no, this is for whole wafers, not cut chips.