By Jay West, on behalf of the Performance Fluoropolymer Partnership
Semiconductors are critical components of electronic devices and systems that power the world, keep us connected, and drive our economy. Semiconductor manufacturing is a precisely engineered process that relies on equipment built to withstand challenging, rigorous requirements. Fluoropolymers are a high performing group of substances with a unique combination of properties that are critical to semiconductor manufacturing but are under threat from misguided and misinformed policies making their way through Washington, D.C., and many states.
Fluoropolymers are specialty materials that can simultaneously impart strength, durability, heat and chemical resistance, and high performance electrical insulation. This unique combination of properties extends the lifespan of components, improves fire safety, increases transmission speeds, and enables the creation of the smaller, more powerful, more integrated electronic products the market demands. For the semiconductor industry, fluoropolymers help the pipes, vessels, valves, and pumps used in semiconductor manufacturing withstand taxing etching and processing conditions, and maintain purity requirements that are critical to this industry.
Fluoropolymers are part of the broad family of fluorinated chemistries known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. In recent years, a small subset of PFAS that does not include fluoropolymers has been the subject of debate over potential impacts on the environment and human health. Those substances are being examined by federal and state regulators and are the subject of the U.S. EPA’s PFAS Action Plan, one of the most comprehensive plans ever deployed by the agency.
Unfortunately, there has been growing pressure to regulate all PFAS as a single, monolithic group. While we support strong, science-based chemical regulations that are protective of human health and the environment, we do not support attempts to regulate all PFAS as a class. Different types of PFAS have different properties and different health and environmental profiles, and it is neither scientifically accurate nor appropriate to regulate all PFAS as if they were a single substance.
The semiconductor industry’s ability to continue to rely on fluoropolymers is threatened by these rash attempts to apply one-size-fits all regulatory and legislative restrictions to all PFAS chemistries. This is happening despite the fact that fluoropolymers have a well-established safety profile and meet internationally recognized criteria for identifying polymers of low concern for human health or the environment (e.g., OECD; see Henry et al. 2018*). The physical and chemical properties of fluoropolymers inhibit their migration, so they present little potential for human or environmental exposure. Fluoropolymers are not soluble in water, and they are not found in drinking water.
We have done significant outreach to regulators and legislators to educate them on the important role of fluoropolymers in society. Many industries, including yours, rely on fluoropolymers and are likely to feel substantial impacts of broad-brush PFAS legislation and regulations promoted in Washington, D.C., and the states. We know that regulators and legislators are being bombarded with the message that all PFAS should be restricted or eliminated, but we also want them to hear from the industries that rely on fluoropolymers to make their products.
Semiconductors and fluoropolymers work together to create the technological innovations that allow businesses to thrive and enhance the quality of life for people around the world. We need your help to educate policy makers on the critical role fluoropolymers in the semiconductor industry and the serious consequences that would result from overly broad, misinformed, and generic restrictions. Please contact us so that we can work together on this effort.
Contact Jay West at Jay_West@americanchemistry.com
Footnote:
* Henry et al, 2018 https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.4035