CEA-Leti has launched a new research programme with International SubFAB Research Labs (ISRL) to test technologies designed to reduce emissions and waste from semiconductor manufacturing.
SubFAB Labs will provide an experimental environment for industry partners to evaluate and qualify monitoring, treatment and abatement technologies under high-volume manufacturing conditions.
The programme is hosted at CEA-Leti's Grenoble site in France and funded entirely by industry.
Its first phase will run for up to four years, focusing on identifying and classifying gaseous and aqueous material use, emissions and by-products across the main integrated circuit manufacturing processes.
The findings will form a reference database to help manufacturers identify priority areas for technology development, improve material efficiency and recover critical raw materials.
Testing technologies beyond the cleanroom
Subfabs are the infrastructure areas beneath semiconductor cleanrooms responsible for pumping, abating and treating gases, chemicals and wastewater generated during chip manufacturing.
Although these systems contribute significantly to a fabrication facility's environmental footprint, testing new technologies within operational production facilities can be difficult.
SubFAB Labs aims to address this by providing a dedicated experimental platform where partners can evaluate materials and equipment under manufacturing conditions, measure their environmental and economic performance, and use modelling to assess how solutions could be scaled up for commercial facilities.
The initiative comes amid increasing pressure on semiconductor manufacturers to reduce their environmental impact, including growing regulatory scrutiny of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their breakdown products.
Around 20 industrial partners from across the integrated circuit value chain previously endorsed the initiative in a poster presented at the SEMI Google Global Executive Summit in Tokyo in 2025.
HORIBA, TOFWERK and Edwards Vacuum join programme
Analytical and measurement solutions provider HORIBA and sensor manufacturer TOFWERK are among the first companies to join SubFAB Labs.
HORIBA, headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, will test and qualify existing and next-generation monitoring systems across different IC manufacturing processes and stages of waste handling.
The work will assess sensor performance along the waste stream, from process exhaust to final treatment.
TOFWERK, a Bruker company based in Thun, Switzerland, will use its time-of-flight mass spectrometry technology to monitor semiconductor process by-products under production conditions.
The company develops ultra-sensitive mass spectrometers for real-time chemical analysis, including applications in etching and deposition processes.
Vacuum and abatement equipment manufacturer Edwards Vacuum will investigate process waste streams and test real-time abatement strategies, using detailed measurements of process by-products to inform treatment approaches.
CEA-Leti CEO Sébastien Dauvé said the programme would give industry partners the data needed to identify and develop new solutions, while accelerating their transition from laboratory research to manufacturing applications.
Further research phases planned from 2027
Four additional phases are scheduled to begin in 2027, targeting processes with the greatest environmental impact: PFAS treatment, etching, deposition, cleaning and polishing.
Each phase will involve testing prototype technologies under manufacturing conditions, measuring their impact on emissions and assessing their effects on other subfab operations, including waste handling, safety and operating costs.
SubFAB Labs will complement existing semiconductor sustainability initiatives, including the SEMI Climate Consortium and the EU-funded GENESIS research project, which CEA-Leti coordinates.
ISRL, CEA-Leti's partner in the programme, is a US company founded in 2022 by former Intel subfab leader Ilya Zabelinsky to advance scientific research into subfab technologies.
Zabelinsky said the launch of the first SubFAB Lab in Europe would support international collaboration on environmental challenges that individual semiconductor manufacturers could struggle to address independently.
“Launching the first SubFAB lab in Europe is a strong start toward a global collaborative effort to solve problems no single company can address inside its own fab,” said Zabelinsky.
As the industry grows toward $1 trillion in revenue, focused, pre-competitive research is how it can keep growing and still meet its environmental targets.
