Texas Instruments RFAB - Plano, TX

Presenter:  Paul Westbrook

                  Sustainable Development Manager

                  Texas Instruments Facilities

Paul gave us a very interesting presentation and tour of the RFAB facility.  He is a Mechanical Engineer and his background includes over 28 years with TI which includes facilities management.  He is a senior member of the technical staff tasked with working on resource efficiency and is a central organizing point and catalyst for TI’s facility-wide energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives.

TI has a 95% recycling rate globally.  Due to its sustainability measures, it has reduced the energy required to manufacture a microchip by over 40%.

aerial view of RFAB

The Plano RFAB facility is LEED Gold for the office and FAB and is reputed to be the lowest overhead cost microchip manufacturing facility in the world.  It was completed in 2010 at a construction cost of $210 Million.  It encompasses 1 Million SF of space of which 284,000 SF is clean room and is 38% more energy efficient than code.  Its ‘cool roof’ reduces the roof temperature to 108 deg F when a comparable built-up roof can be as high as 140 deg F or more.  Native grasses were planted around the facility except at the parking lot.  Paul estimates that 1% of project cost was invested in LEED. 

Some of the unique current and projected energy conserving features that I noticed in this facility include:

• The use of proximity sensing detectors in individual light fixtures
• The structural floor system incorporates return air grilles with HEPA filters.
• Utilizing stratification of air temperatures in the makeup intake and exhaust air system.
• The use of waterless urinals.
• Paul has no problem with maintenance on these fixtures.  I found this to be interesting as other facilities folks don’t want to use them due to maintenance considerations.
• Rainwater re-use pond.
• The possibility of using ‘Bloom Box’ fuel cell systems as emergency electrical generators.
• http://www.gizmag.com/bloom-box-fuel-cell-system-clean-power-home/14293/
• Using low fuel use gas burners
• Turning off vacuum pumps when machines are not processing.

Slide courtesy of TI - Paul Westbrook

Link to TI - RFABinformation:

www.ti.com/rfab