California Code of Regulations
Title 17 - Public Health
Division 3 - Air Resources
Chapter 1 - Air Resources Board
Subchapter 10 - Climate Change
Article 4 - Regulations to Achieve Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions
Subarticle 2 - Semiconductors and Related Devices
Section 95323 - Standards

Universal Citation: 17 CA Code of Regs 95323

Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 38, September 20, 2024

(a) Except as provided in section 95323(b), an owner or operator of a semiconductor operation must meet the emission standards in Table 1 by January 1, 2012. An operation that is replacing CVD or etching tools that process 150 millimeter diameter wafers with tools that process 200 millimeter diameter or larger wafers must comply with the Table 1 emission standards by January 1, 2014.

The Tier 1 emission standard shall apply to an owner or operator of a semiconductor operation that processes more than 37.7 million square centimeters of wafer surface area per calendar year. The Tier 1 emission standard shall also apply to the owner or operator of a semiconductor operation that begins operation after January 1, 2010.

(1) Emissions Calculation Method

An owner or operator must express fluorinated gas emissions in CO2e units. The kilograms of fluorinated gas emissions are determined using the Tier 2b calculation method in the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, incorporated by reference herein. The IPCC 1996 Second Assessment Report (SAR) provides the GWP values used to calculate fluorinated gas emissions, with the exception of NF3 which is based on the GWP value from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

An owner or operator of a semiconductor operation may request that the permitting agency approve the use of an alternative destruction removal efficiency (DRE) value that exceeds the default DRE value in the Tier 2b calculation method. An alternative DRE must be based on independent third party measured results for the emission control equipment used by the operation.

The kilograms of fluorinated gas emissions from CVD chamber cleaning and etching are converted to million metric tons of CO2 equivalent (MMT CO2e) using the following formula:

Total Fluorinated Gas Emissions in MMT CO2e = [SIGMA] Ei(GWP100)i/109 Where:

E = the kilograms of fluorinated gas emitted using the Tier 2b method

i = the fluorinated gas

GWP100 = the GWP of the fluorinated gas

109 = the number of kilograms per million metric ton

For an operation emitting more than 0.0008 MMT CO2e per calendar year, total fluorinated gas emissions in MMT CO2e are converted to kilograms of CO2 equivalents per square centimeter (Kg CO2e/cm2) using the following formula:

Emissions in Kg CO2e/cm2 = (MMT CO2e)(109) / [SIGMA][([PHI]rn2 Wfn)/100]

Where:

109 = the number of kilograms per million metric ton

[PHI] = 3.1416

rn = one half the diameter in millimeters of a given size wafer n = diameter of a wafer in millimeters

Wfn = the number of wafers of a given size processed in the calendar year

100 = the number of square millimeters per square centimeter

Table 1

Emission Standards for Semiconductor Operations Effective January 1, 2012

CVD Chamber Cleaning and Etching Processes

Wafer Surface Area Processed (Million Square Centimeters Per Calendar Year)

Maximum Emissions Limit Per Square Centimeter for a Calendar Year (Kg CO2e/cm2)

Tier 1: >37.70.2
Tier 2: >3.7 and [LESS THAN EQUAL TO]37.70.3
Tier 3: [LESS THAN EQUAL TO]3.70.5

(b) The emission standards in Table 1 shall not apply to a semiconductor operation that emits 0.0008 million metric tons or less of CO2e per calendar year.

(c) The owner or operator of a semiconductor operation that is installing equipment to meet the emission standards in Table 1 must submit a permit application to the permitting agency no later than March 1, 2011.

(d) The owner or operator of a semiconductor operation that is installing equipment to meet the emission standards in Table 1 by January 1, 2014 pursuant to section 95323(a), must submit a permit application to the permitting agency no later than March 1, 2013.

1. New section filed 12-14-2009; operative 1-1-2010 pursuant to Government Code section 11343.4 (Register 2009, No. 51).

Note: Authority cited: Sections 38501, 38510, 38560, 38560.5, 38580, 39600 and 39601, Health and Safety Code. Reference: Sections 38501, 38505, 38510, 38550, 38551, 38560, 38560.5, 39600 and 39601, Health and Safety Code.

Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. California may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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