UMC Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center Breaks Ground for a Zero Waste Future

United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC) has launched the first R&D center for waste recycling in the Southern Taiwan Science Park.

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03/17/2023 - 05:07 AM

The first R&D center for waste recycling in the Southern Taiwan Science Park

HSINCHU, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) (“UMC”) today held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center, which will be established at its Fab 12A in Tainan, Taiwan. The NT$1.8 billion (US$58.8 million) facility will be the first waste recycling R&D center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, serving as an important contributor for sustainable circular economy in Taiwan. After the center begins operating in 2025, it is expected to reduce 15,000 metric tons of semiconductor manufacturing waste annually.

"UMC has invested in Taiwan for more than four decades, including in our flagship Fab 12A, the manufacturing and R&D hub for our specialty process technologies. While we have continued to pursue capacity expansions and enhance our R&D capabilities, UMC is also deeply committed to our corporate sustainability goals. The Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center will serve as the center of our efforts to maximize resource recovery and minimize waste,” said SC Chien, UMC's Co-President and Chief Sustainability Officer. “Working hand in hand with our value chain partners, we believe we can raise the bar for circularity in Taiwan, and enhance our industry’s competitiveness through sustainable practices.”

In the first phase, UMC's Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center will process waste produced during IC manufacturing processes into products that can be reused or sold, such as turning liquid waste and sludge into industrial-grade products. As for waste solvents that cannot be purified, the thermal cracking process will be applied to produce fuel gas to be reused within the facility. In the second phase, the Center will further develop thermal cracking technology that can directly convert waste solvents and plastics into energy supply. Once operational, the facility is expected to reduce waste from UMC’s Taiwan fabs by one-third, and create around NT$100 million worth of value-added products.

UMC has invested in a number of circular economy initiatives over the years, such as decreasing outsourced waste disposal by promoting resource reuse within its fabs. Estimated to lower carbon emissions by around 5,000 tons per year, this program reduces the need for waste transportation and raw material mining, while also mitigating the risks of transporting waste to external facilities. In addition, Fab 12A has introduced an electrolysis process to convert copper sulfate liquid waste into copper tubes with re-sale value, expected to generate more than NT$13 million of revenue per year. Anther initiative in progress is the recycling of used photomasks, which are cleaned on-site to remove patterning and resold as quartz substrates for optical products.

With a total floor area of around 9,000 square meters, the Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center is designed in compliance with green building codes, and will also act as an education center to promote circular economy and environmental protection to the young generation. Using this center as a base, UMC will work closely with waste management service providers and raw material suppliers to develop innovative recycling methods and projects, contributing to a better, more sustainable future through collaborations together with value chain partners.

About UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry company. The company provides high quality IC fabrication services, focusing on logic and various specialty technologies to serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC’s comprehensive IC processing technologies and manufacturing solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage, embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI and BCD etc. Most of UMC's 12-in & 8-in fabs with its core R&D are located in Taiwan, with additional ones throughout Asia. UMC has total 12 fabs in production with combined capacity of approximately 850,000 wafers per month (8-in equivalent), and all of them are certified with IATF 16949 automotive quality standard. UMC is headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, plus local offices in United States, Europe, China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with worldwide total 20,000 employees. For more information, please visit: https://www.umc.com.

Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about introduction of new services and technologies, future outsourcing, competition, wafer capacity, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.