DOE Seeks Input to Dramatically Increase Energy Efficiency of Semiconductor Applications

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE's) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) released a request for information (RFI) to solicit feedback from stakeholders on the Energy Efficiency Scaling for Two Decades (EES2) Initiative and the draft EES2 Research and Development (R&D) Roadmap that accompanies this RFI. The roadmap outlines the technology R&D needed to increase the energy efficiency of semiconductor applications 1,000-fold over the next twenty years.  

Semiconductive materials, such as silicon, are used to construct vital components of industrial-scale data centers, smartphones, computers, solar cells, electric vehicles, and many other products that millions of Americans use daily. Over the last 30 years, energy efficiency improvements in the products made by the semiconductor industry have fallen out of pace with the surging global demand for computing and artificial intelligence technologies.  

Since 2010, overall semiconductor application energy use has doubled every three years, and by 2030, if this rate of increase continues, the semiconductor industry could consume nearly 20% of global energy production. The EES2 National Initiative aims to put the semiconductor industry back on the path of doubling energy efficiency every two years to increase the economic competitiveness of American microelectronics manufacturers and to strengthen domestic renewable energy supply chains. 

AMMTO seeks input from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to energy efficiency in the semiconductor industry, particularly for computing applications. Feedback on the initial version (1.0) of the roadmap that accompanies this RFI is of specific interest.  

With this RFI, AMMTO seeks input on the following three categories:  

• EES2 initiative goals and objectives 
• Roadmap document 
• Process and future steps. 

Feedback will also be essential to the EES2 Initiative, which not only aims to enhance the semiconductor industry and its products’ energy efficiency, but also aims to fast-track the application of these technologies across different sectors and ensure rapid adaptation to ever-evolving market and environmental demands. 

Responses to the RFI must be submitted electronically to micro.electronics@ee.doe.gov no later than 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 16, 2024.

View the full RFI. 

This article post was originally published in August 2024 and has been updated.