As the world's leading semiconductor foundry, TSMC's measures to reduce energy consumption in advanced process production are leading its peers in pursuing similar energy-saving goals. Currently, TSMC has tapped out more efficiencies from its EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) systems, but the latest release marks the company's transition to more real-time, intelligent energy management.
According to reports, TSMC's main production bases in Taiwan - including factories 15B, 18A, and 18B - officially launched the "Dynamic Energy Saving Management Plan" in September this year, focusing on extreme ultraviolet lithography systems. This type of equipment has always been the most power-consuming equipment in the semiconductor production line. The company expects to promote this solution to all EUV equipment around the world within this year and will fully use it in new factories such as Fab 21 Phase II in Arizona, USA. TSMC estimates that by 2030, the system can save a total of 190 million kilowatt-hours of electricity while reducing carbon emissions by approximately 101,000 tons.
Although the specific technical details have not been made public, since the framework is expected to be subsequently used in DUV (deep ultraviolet) lithography machines and other production equipment, it means that it does not rely on EUV-specific engineering transformation. Analysts believe that the core of the new solution should be an intelligent adjustment device to flexibly allocate energy consumption according to the actual exposure period of the wafer. For example, equipment can reduce power consumption in real time during idle periods, and improve energy efficiency through information linkage and flexible scheduling in clean rooms.
Improving energy efficiency has always been an important challenge for TSMC's advanced lithography systems. EUV lithography machines are manufactured by ASML in the Netherlands. They are indispensable equipment for manufacturing the most advanced logic chips, but they consume huge amounts of power during operation. TSMC said last year that through internal redesign and optimization, it has reduced the energy consumption of the new generation system by about a quarter, mainly due to production process automation and system collaborative improvements. These upgrades have reduced equipment peak power by up to 44% without affecting process output, yield or product quality.
Despite considerable progress, TSMC's huge power consumption scale shows room for continued improvement. According to statistics, the company's electricity consumption in 2024 will reach 25.55 billion kilowatt hours, of which only 3.61 billion will come from renewable energy, accounting for about 9% of Taiwan's total electricity consumption. It should be noted that lithography and process equipment account for less than half of the overall electricity consumption, and more electricity is used for supporting facilities such as factory cooling, air conditioning, and clean room operation.
By cutting energy waste in production equipment, TSMC is reducing part of its carbon footprint, but the annual electricity bill savings (approximately NT$22.44 million at current electricity prices) only account for a small portion of total electricity expenditures.