As a product-related approach, Shibarua Mechatronics Group is endeavoring to alleviate the burdens placed on the environment by offering environmentally conscious products (ECP). In creating ECP, we assume that environmental burdens will occur across the entire product lifecycle (the series of stages that products pass through, such as procurement of materials, production, distribution, use, and final disposal). The environmental loads imposed throughout a product's lifecycle are greatly influenced by the initiatives we take during the planning and design stages. In 2005, we introduced the concept of “factor” as an indicator for achieving a comprehensive assessment of the value and environmental impact of our products. The value and impact of each product are quantified as a “factor value” that gauges how eco-friendly the product is and how the factor is improved upon against a benchmark product. Factor value is the eco-efficiency of the product being assessed divided by the eco-efficiency of that product in its base year. Eco-efficiency is a product's value divided by its environmental impacts – the bigger the factor value, the better the eco-efficiency of the product being assessed. Products with a factor value of 1.5 or higher and products with a factor value of 2.0 or higher are approved as ECP and Ex-ECP (Excellent ECP), respectively. Shibaura Mechatronics Group will continue to push ahead with the development of ECP and introduce many more to the market.

SC300GX III : single wafer wet cleaning equipment

Improving the environment (saving resources, saving energy)
Using a separator to recycle chemical solutions – a recovery rate of 98%

Enhancing value (improving productivity)
An 1.8 times increase in number of wafers processed in an hour

Single wafer wet cleaning equipment uses chemicals and pure water to remove dust and stains that can lead to defects (in the semiconductors) during the semiconductor wafer manufacturing process. Our customers, manufacturers of semiconductor memories, want to respond to demand from users of digital cameras, mobile phones, SSD and other products and support development of high capacity, compact products through advances in miniaturizing storage cells and shrinking memory chips. As a large volume of chemicals and pure water are used in the semiconductor wafer cleaning process, chemical recycling is essential. The SC300GX III achieves a chemical recovery rate of 98% by using a separator to recycle the chemical solution, and in doing so it reduces impacts on the environment. Although we equipped additional functions, by using a space saving delivery robot and combining the chemical solution supply units?we have managed to hold the installation area as large as 1.2 times and secured 80% gain in processing ability.
*A solid-state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that uses flash memory.