PFASware: Quantifying the Environmental Impact of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Computing Systems
Elgamal, Mariam Mahmoud, Abdulrahman Wei, Gu-Yeon Brooks, David Hills, Gage
Elgamal, Mariam
Mahmoud, Abdulrahman
Wei, Gu-Yeon
Brooks, David
Hills, Gage
Supervisor
Department
Computer Science
Embargo End Date
Type
Conference proceeding
Date
2025
License
Language
English
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Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
PFAS (per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances), also known as forever chemicals, are widely used in electronics and semiconductor manufacturing. PFAS are environmentally persistent and bioaccumulative synthetic chemicals, which have recently received considerable regulatory attention. Manufacturing semiconductors and electronics, including integrated circuits (IC), batteries, displays, etc., currently accounts for a staggering 10% of the total PFAS-containing fluoropolymers used in Europe alone. Now, computer system designers have an opportunity to reduce the use of PFAS in semiconductors and electronics at the design phase. In this work, we quantify the environmental impact of PFAS in computing systems, and outline how designers can optimize their designs to use less PFAS. We show that manufacturing an IC design at a 7 nm technology node using Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography uses 20% less volume of PFAS-containing chemicals versus manufacturing the same design at a 7 nm node using Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) immersion lithography (instead of EUV). We also show that manufacturing an IC design at a 16 nm technology node results in 15% less volume of PFAS than manufacturing the same design at a 28 nm node due to its smaller area.
Citation
M. Elgamal, A. Mahmoud, G. -Y. Wei, D. Brooks and G. Hills, "PFASware: Quantifying the Environmental Impact of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Computing Systems," 2025 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference (DATE), Lyon, France, 2025, pp. 1-2, doi: 10.23919/DATE64628.2025.10992705
Source
Proceedings -Design, Automation and Test in Europe, DATE
Conference
2025 Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference, DATE 2025
Keywords
forever chemicals, lithography, PFAS, semiconductor manufacturing
Subjects
Source
2025 Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference, DATE 2025
Publisher
IEEE