What Is A Cleanroom? What Is It Used For?

By Author: Peter Wendt
Total Articles: 34
Comment this article

Many modern technologies and scientific procedures require a high degree of precision. The manufacture of semiconductors and computer parts, experimentation with biotechnology and other technological processes are among those that require cleanliness and accuracy. A hard drive, for example, needs to be manufactured in a controlled environment. Particles in the air settling on the platters will cause errors leading to lost data, corrupted sectors and even physical damage. In order to manufacture a hard drive, any semiconductor or to perform many scientific processes, a degree of control must be achieved over the air conditions.

Controlling the Air

The key to these tricky manufacturing processes is controlling the particulate matter in the air. Prior to 1960, airflow was hard to control and no reasonable clean room had been designed. In 1960, a man named Willis Whitfield created the precursor to the modern clean room design. His invention was a huge success, using highly filtered air and a constant airflow to flush particles away from work surfaces.

How a Clean Room Works

Normal air in the atmosphere ...
... can contain on average 35 million particles per cubic meter. This is a very high density of dust, spores, chemical contaminants and other particles. A clean room strives to remove as many of these particles as possible from the air. The first stage in this process is a detailed filtration system. HEPA or ULPA filters remove the majority of these particles from the air before it enters the clean room.

Controlling Contamination

A number of steps are taken to ensure particles don't enter the clean room. All employees in the clean room typically wear a sterile uniform overall, complete with head covering and goggles. This ensures that dead skin, dirt and hair are contained. In some clean rooms, an air shower in an airlock is used to remove particles from employees who enter the room. Uniforms, machinery and even janitorial equipment are specially designed to leave a minimum of particulate matter behind, which generally means synthetic materials.

Additional Steps

Clean rooms range from low to high standards of particle removal. The lowest standards filter air but may not have an air shower or require clean suits for employees. The highest standards leave the air entirely particle-free and may require ionizing equipment and humidifiers just to prevent static shocks.

Clean Room Restrictions

Clean rooms can be built in any size. In some cases, entire factories for manufacturing semiconductors are contained inside one large clean room. The main restrictions in clean rooms are what materials can enter. Pencils, organic fabrics and other natural fibers are typically excluded. Clean rooms are not medically sterile -- they do not remove microbes and microorganisms from the air or from materials. They only minimize air particles.

Peter Wendt is a researcher, writer & native Texan. If you are in need of a cleanroom space, visit http://www.eptek.com for more information.