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IBM Scrapes Silicon Scraps

Posted Oct 30, 07 10:55 AM CDT in Science & Health,  Technology 

(Newser) – IBM has developed an eco-friendly way of recycling silicon for eco-friendly solar panels. Semiconductor chipmakers often sell used silicon too thin for computing to solar panel manufacturers. Until now, they’ve used abrasive chemicals or a spray of glass beads to erase circuits from the chips. IBM plans to share the technique with other chipmakers, but hasn’t announced specifics.

Texas Instruments sold about 1 million scrap chips for $8 million last year, and IBM estimates the scrap market at 3 million chips. A global shortage of silicon due to increasing demand for solar panels is expected to last at least through next year. Solar panel makers are increasingly modifying panels to work with impurities, which normally scuttle power generation.

Source CNET

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Demand for solar panels has grown since Germany began subsidizing them in 2004. (AP Photo/Matthias Rietschel)   (Associated Press)
A solar panel provides power for a home at the Three Rivers Recreational Area, in Lake Billy Chinook, Ore., Thursday, April 26, 2007. Everyone in this community lives "off the grid", part of a growing...   (Associated Press)
A chip manufacturing plant. (AP Photo /Samsung Electronics, HO)   (Associated Press)
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IBM  • recycling  • solar energy  • Texas Instruments  • silicon  • semiconductor chip


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