The pan in which nothing burns. The rain jacket that keeps you dry. Lipstick that lasts a long time. This is often made possible by so-called perpetuity chemicals, or PFAS for short. A large group of chemical substances that are extremely stable. This is precisely their problem. They hardly degrade in the environment and can accumulate in soil, water and the body. Some of these substances are suspected of being harmful to health. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS in Chemnitz now want to replace the use of PFAS in at least one important area: chip production.
Chips are used in almost everything today - from smartphones to medical technology. They are manufactured by inserting tiny structures into silicon, the base material for most semiconductors. Until now, the industry has often used PFAS for this because they are heat-resistant and particularly chemically stable. At the same time, pressure is growing worldwide to ban these substances from industrial processes.
European cooperation for a clean future
The team at Fraunhofer ENAS is relying on a new process called Gas-MacEtch. This is based on a special etching process. Tiny structures are specifically removed from the silicon using gases and a metal. The process does not require PFAS compounds. Instead, more environmentally friendly and biodegradable chemicals are used. This could significantly reduce environmental and health impacts.
The technology is being developed in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and the British company memsstar. While the researchers in Chemnitz and Switzerland are optimizing the chemical processes, memsstar is working on integrating the method into industrial plants.
More memory, faster data - without poison
An additional advantage: the new method works at lower temperatures than many previous methods. This saves energy and can therefore also reduce emissions. In the future, the technology could be used in the production of modern memory chips, for example, in which memory cells are stacked on top of each other. The process is also interesting for optical components that precisely control light.
The technology is still under development. But the researchers' goal is clear. They want to produce high-performance chips without any eternal chemicals.
