Edwards Limited is pleased to announce that Mike Czerniak, Product Marketing Manager Exhaust Gas Management, was honored with SEMI’s Merit Award during SEMICON West last week.

“The North America SEMI Standards Merit Award recognises member contributions to the semiconductor, photovoltaic and related industries,” stated Paul Trio, Senior Manager, North America Standards, SEMI. “Award winners are recognised for taking the initiative to solve a very complex and significant problem at the task force level, which involves gaining the industry support and cooperation needed to establish and adhere to new industry-wide standards.”

Trio adds, “Czerniak, along with Daniel Chlus (IBM) and Lance Rist (RistTex), were part of the Energy Saving Equipment Communication Task Force responsible for developing new standards designed to help reduce energy consumption in production equipment.”

Previous research has demonstrated that opportunities exist to reduce utility consumption for production equipment while wafers are not being processed. While production equipment is capable of reduced utility consumption, implementation has been slow due to lack of a standard.

Czerniak states, “The implementation of the new SEMI E167 standard will enable wide-spread industry adoption of green mode, which automatically powers down equipment when wafers are not being processed. Green mode is critical for world-wide reduction of energy costs and greenhouse gas emission.” He adds, “Edwards’ pumps and abatement solutions have been capable of green mode, but until now, the lack of industry communication standards have impeded our ability to implement it into our customers’ fabs.”