Several terms are currently used to describe controlled environments, but they are most often referred to as clean zones, or just ‘cleanrooms’. The key role of this type of rooms is to ensure that the air there has certain precisely specified parameters that are necessary to ensure the repeatability of production, regardless of the industry, be it pharmaceutics, electronics or the automotive industry.
There are many factors to consider for the proper maintenance of your cleanroom and its equipment and supplies.
As computer and electronics industries pack more circuits on semiconductor wafers, eliminating particles in the clean rooms where they are processed becomes more critical with each generation. In many wafer-processing environments, as well as in other clean rooms, mechanicalpositioning stages are large contributors to contamination. Sup-pliers are required to follow special design criteria that ensures a positioning stage's cleanliness according to certain standards.
Stringent standards and safety protocols are put in place to ensure that products manufactured and inspected in cleanrooms will not pose any hazards to the end user.
Today, when most of us purchase a new electronic device, just about whatever it is, the first thing we do is take it out of the box, plug it in, and start it going. No reading manuals; no watching instruction videos; if a quick start-up guide is included, maybe we’ll take a look at it.
The problem with this plug-and-play mentality is that we can pay a high price for it. We typically do not reference the manual until something goes wrong. Very often at that point, we find out the problem we are now facing could have been avoided with proper equipment maintenance practices — what started out as a minor equipment issue has now become a major repair cost.
When it comes to cleaning equipment, the high price that managers of controlled environments may pay can be very high indeed. This is why they must stress that their cleaning professionals, whether in-house or contracted, properly maintain their cleaning tools. For instance, if airborne dust is released from a poorly maintained vacuum cleaner, it can damage work areas and experiments. Poorly maintained floor machines can do the same as well as possibly damage the floor’s finish or the floor itself. The point is this: plug-and-play is great, and a time saver; but disregard plug-and-maintain when it comes to cleaning equipment at your own peril.
To help cleaning professionals and administrators avoid these pitfalls, below are some common equipment maintenance issues often included in the owner’s manual that get lost in our plug-and-play world.
In some cleanroom manufacturing environments a fairly large number of chemicals are used. Each individual chemical could be a source of contamination. To keep chemicals clean and particulate free highly purified variants are required. These will need to be delivered in clean, non-corrosive containers, transported ‘cleanly’ and not cross contaminated.
Laminar flow hoods are essential equipment when working with delicate or hazardous materials, such as biological cells or unstable chemicals. Choosing the right laminar flow hood allows scientific researchers to work safely and effectively in the laboratory. Educate yourself about the features of laminar flow hoods so you can choose the right equipment for your laboratory or clean room.
A cleanroom is any given contained space where provisions are made to reduce particulate contamination and control other environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity and pressure. The key component is the High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter that is used to trap particles that are 0.3 micron and larger in size. All of the air delivered to a cleanroom passes through HEPA filters, and in some cases where stringent cleanliness performance is necessary, Ultra Low Particulate Air (ULPA) filters are used.
In order to meet project contamination cleanliness requirements, ground support equipment (GSE) used in clean areas at MSSL for flight hardware integration and testing needs to be cleaned at regular intervals. This is to ensure that surface contamination levels are minimized and the possibility of contamination redistribution from the GSE to the flight hardware is significantly reduced.
When bringing equipment into the cleanroom, ensure that you observe the following: All cleanroom users should ensure that they consult the cleanroom manager before they bring any equipment and processes into the cleanroom. This cannot be stressed enough! The monitoring of equipment and processes going into the cleanroom is an important part of the general contamination control of the cleanroom. If bringing equipment or processes into the cleanroom ensure that you follow the detailed procedures listed below.
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