March 13, 2001–Washington, DC–The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today will enter a new voluntary partnership to reduce emissions of perfluorocompounds–the most potent and persistent of all global warming gases, which are used by the semiconductor industry to clean semiconductor manufacturing equipment and to etch wafers–10% from 1995 levels by the end of 2010.

SIA is signing the Memorandum of Understanding with EPA on the ‘PFC Reduction Climate Partnership’ today on behalf of 21 semiconductor manufacturers. The partnership will promote global reductions of perfluorocompound gases, including perfluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. Perfluorocompounds have, on average, 10,000 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over 100 years, plus they can persist in the atmosphere from 2,000 to 50,000 years.

Participating companies include: Advanced Micro Devices, Sunnyvale, CA; Agere Systems, Allentown, PA; Conexant Systems, Newport Beach, CA; Dominion Semiconductor, Manassas, VA; Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY; Fairchild Semiconductor Corp., South Portland, ME; Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto, CA; Hyundai Semiconductor America, Eugene, OR; IBM Microelectronics Division, Armonk, NY; Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA; Intersil Corp., Irvine, CA; LSI Logic, Milpitas, CA; Micron Technology, Boise, ID; Motorola, Schaumberg, IL; National Semiconductor, Santa Clara, CA; NEC Electronics, Japan; Philips Semiconductors, The Netherlands; Sony Semiconductor Co. of America, San Antonio, TX; ST Microelectronics, Italy; and Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX.

This new partnership complements efforts by the World Semiconductor Council and other semiconductor trade associations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.