Purer than pure: how purity reshapes the upstream materiality of the semiconductor industry

Abstract: Growing attention is given to the environmental impacts of the digital sector, exacerbated by the increase of digital products and services in our globalized societies. The materiality of the digital sector is often presented through the environmental impacts of mining activities to point out that digitization does not mean dematerialization. Despite its importance, such a narrative is often restricted to a few minerals (e.g., cobalt, lithium) that have become the symbols of extractive industries. In this paper, we further explore the materiality of the digital sector with an approach based on the diversity of elements and their purity requirements in the semiconductor industry. Semiconductors are responsible for manufacturing the key building blocks of the digital sector, i.e., microchips. Given that the need for ultra-high purity materials is very specific to the semiconductor industry, a few companies around the world have been studied, revealing new critical actors in complex supply chains. This highlights strong dependencies towards other industrial sectors with mass production and the need for a deeper investigation of interactions with the chemical industry, complementary to the mining industry.