IBM turns wafer waste into solar energy.

IBM has announced pioneering work into the process of turning waste into solar energy – helping to reduce the amount of discarded silicon wafers whilst providing a new energy supply for solar energy manufacturers.

Semiconductor wafers are thin discs of silicon material used to imprint patterns that make finished semiconductor chips for computers, mobile phones and video games.

The wafers hold intellectual property so most cannot be sent to outside traders to reclaim – therefore the majority are crushed and sent to landfills, or melted down to be resold.

Around 250,000 wafers are manufactured worldwide every day and IBM estimates that up to 3.3% of those wafers are scrapped – around 3 million a year.

The new semiconductor wafer reclamation process uses a specialised pattern removal technique. This recreates scrap semiconductor wafers into a form that is then used to manufacture silicon-based solar panels.

Charles Bai, Chief Financial Officer of Renesola, one of China’s fastest growing solar energy companies, commented on the current situation: “One of the challenges facing the solar industry is a severe shortage of silicon, which threatens to stall its rapid growth.

“This is why we have turned to reclaimed silicon materials sourced primarily from the semiconductor industry to supply the raw material our company needs to manufacture solar panels.”

IBM intends to provide details of this pioneering new process to the wider semiconductor manufacturing industry.