#G-003c
Effective Contamination Control, Cleanroom Protocols, & Lab Safety
External Resources
**Cleanroom Technology: Fundamentals of Design, Testing, & Operation, W. Whyte, Wiley & Sons, 2001, ISBN 0 471 86842 6 **Introduction to Contamination Control & Cleanroom Technology, Matts Ramstorp, Wiley-VCH, 2000, ISBN 3-527-30142-9 Encyclopedia of Cleanrooms, Bio-Cleanrooms, and Aseptic Areas, Philip Austin, CRC Press, 2000, ISBN 0970113501 Cleanroom Microbiology for the Non-microbiologist, David Carlberg, 1995, CRC Press, ISBN 0935184732 (2nd edition due Oct 2004) Cleanroom Design, W. Whyte, Wiley & Sons, 1999, ISBN 0471942049 Trade Publications:
Cleanrooms Magazine, http://www.cleanrooms.com/ A2C2 Magazine, http://www.a2c2.com/
**=source for many of images in presentation
Outline
IntroductionCleanroom definitions Facility design & layout principles Air flow Contamination & Measurement Cleaning & Materials Selection The user!! Protocols to improve control Safety Practices Conclusions
Historical Perspective
Why Cleanrooms?
First cleanrooms were in hospitals to prevent disease transmission and infection in operating rooms (over 100 years ago!) Valuable tool to prevent particulate and bio contamination Most well known use is in semiconductor industry, but also essential in pharmaceuticals, flat panel displays, space program, photonics, life sciences, industrial (painting, assembly), etc. Essential for LCDs because of coating processes, small cell gaps Cleanroom itself is only part of the solution
What is Clean Room?
A clean room is a man-made environment that has much lower particle counts than the normal environment. A work area in which the air quality temperature and humidity are highly regulated in order to protect sensitive equipment from contamination.
What is Clean Room?
Clean rooms are important features in the production of silicon chip, hard disk drive and other technologies such as satellites. The air in a clean room is repeatedly filtered to remove dust particles and other impurities that can damage the production of highly sensitive technologies.
What is Clean Room?
A clean room is a work area with controlled temperature and humidity to protect sensitive equipment from contamination. It contains plastic walls and ceilings, external lighting, and there is a continuous influx of clean, dust-free air. The room should be cleaned daily to prevent contamination.
What is Clean Room?
What is Clean Room?
Standard definitions of cleanroom classifications are strange combination of metric and English units. A class 10 cleanroom is defined as having 10 particles with diameter larger than 0.5um per cubic foot. Class 1 cleanroom having 1 particle with diameter larger than 0.5um per cubic foot.
What is Clean Room
A fab making IC chips with a minimum feature size of 0.25um needs a class 1 clean room to achieve an acceptable yield.
Classification of Clean Room
In US, classes still referred to as defined by Federal Standard 209D
Clean-room elements
Both the design of clean room and its operation must be set up to keep dirt and contamination from getting into the room from the outside. Nine techniques are used to keep out and control dirt. They are:
1. Adhesive floor mats 2. Gowning area 3. Air pressure 4. Air showers 5. Service bays 6. Double door pass through 7. Static Control 8. Shoe Cleaners 9. Glove Cleaners
Cleanroom Structure
The basic structure of an advanced cleanroom is illustrated below
Cleanroom Structure
The cleanroom usually has a raised floor with grid panels, which allows airstram to flow vertically from the ceiling to the area underneath the process and equipment area. Airflow returns to the cleanroom through the high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter, which removes most particles carried by the air-flow.
Cleanroom Structure
To cut cost, only wafer processing areas are designed with the highest-class cleanroom, whereas equipment areas have lower-class cleanroom design; most facilities are not in a cleanroom at all. For fabrication of IC chips with 0.18m, better than class 1 cleanroom is needed for the processing area. Normally, class 1000 is good enough for the equipment area, which represents a significant savings in design and maintenance.
Cleanroom Structure
A cleanroom is always kept at higher pressure than non clean areas, which keeps airflow outward against airborne particles when a door is opened. The same principles applies to the different-class area inside the clean room: higher class have higher pressure than lower-class areas. Variations in temperature, airflow rate, and humidity can also disturb surface particles, so all atmospherics, must be strictly controlled in the cleanroom
Cleanroom Structure
Air flow into clean room are filtered using HEPA filter (High efficiency particulate air filter)
- Designed with efficiency of 99.97% to remove particles of 0.3m.
Pressure in clean room is higher than normal room by 0.52 psi (positive pressure).
Cleanroom Structure
Clean air from HEPA filters
Cleanroom Structure
To achieve better than class 100 cleaness, it is important to keep a linear airflow usually called laminar flow, and avoid air turbulence. Air turbulence can render particles on the surfaces of the wall, ceiling, table, and tools, air-borne, and make it difficult for them to settle. With laminar flow, airborne particles are carried away quickly by the airflow. Class 100 is the dividing line between laminar flow and tubulent flow, an important point with respect to cleanroom cost. Lower than class 100 can be achieved with turbulent flow, which cost less than laminar flow.
Outline
IntroductionCleanroom definitions Facility design & layout principles
Air flow
Contamination & Measurement Cleaning & Materials Selection The user!! Protocols to improve control
Air Flow Type
Turbulence Vertical Flow Horizontal Flow Conventional Flow
Air Flow & Turbulence
Most airflow is turbulentno clear relation between velocity vectors at different points
Not optimal for contamination control!! Long path length for contamination to leave the room Particles can be trapped in eddies for long time
Laminar (Unidirectional) Air Flow
Concept of laminar airflow In cleanrooms, often called uni-directional flow (UDF)
Ideal for contamination controlshortest path to
sweep particles out of clean areas; complete room air change in shortest period of time
Laminar Flow
Can use localized clean areas Clean Benches: Horizontal and Vertical Laminar Flow (HLF on left, VLF on right)
Facility design
Isolators, Glove boxes provide better protection from outside contamination
Contamination Control by Layout
Isolation between processes prevents cross contamination; separate rooms, air showers, door interlocks Onion concept: cleanest areas are inside, have to pass through successively cleaner areas to reach these areas
Air Shower
Air shower serve to protect your cleanroom environment from unwanted contamination. Clean garments become contaminated during the gowning/ungowning process, general use, and because of high traffic in the gowning area. The contamination problem is amplified when the same garment is worn several times or is taken on and off numerous times during the day.
Air Shower
Air Shower
Air shower is a fast and effective method of removing this surface contamination. The air shower is quality constructed using heavy gage painted steel (no particle board) to minimize particle generation. Air showers are available in a variety of sizes and shapes to provide a cleaning system to meet your specific application.
UDF More Important for Cleaner Areas
Practical Considerations for UDF
Any objects in path of laminar flow will deflect airflowthis usually results in turbulence; USER BEHAVIOR HAS LARGE IMPACT
Most critical for laminar flow benches situated in non-clean areas; not as critical if located in larger clean area
Outline
IntroductionCleanroom definitions Facility design & layout principles Air flow
Contamination
Cleaning & Materials Selection The user!! Protocols to improve control
Types of Contamination
Particulateencompasses most contamination - Inorganic dust metallic, silicon, glass etc. - Organic dust dried skin, hair, makeup, bacteriaetc Films -Residues oil, grease, finger print, .etc -Oxides grown by thermal, chemical or electrochemical process Atomic Contamination - Absorbed/Adsorbed Atoms or Ions - in / on the films or substrate (Na, K, Ca, etc)
Sources of Contamination
Humans
- cause most of the contamination - dirt, oils, etc. tracked into labs on shoe soles - bodies continuously exfoliate skin, replace hair,.. - widespread use of make-up, perfume, hair gels, .. - spread throughout lab by central air system - use of mechanical tweezers - scratch and chip wafer edge and surface
Machines
- abrasion during automated wafer handling - mechanical mechanism wear and lubrication - aging plastic and rubber parts
Contamination Induced Problems
Mobile ions in oxides
-can change electric fields and voltages at Si surface
Impurities in Silicon
-act as recombination centers for electron-hole pairs and impact carrier concentration / distribution
Particles on surface or in release etchant
- create numerous problems during photolitography - can jam micromechanical structures
Unintentional films between layers
- create open circuits or short circuits between layers - impede adhesion between films (release etch)
Outline
IntroductionCleanroom definitions Facility design & layout principles Air flow Contamination
Cleaning & Materials Selection
The user!! Protocols to improve control
Contamination Control and Its Relationships
All sources of contamination and control are interrelated
Cleaning
Critical to remove contaminants that cannot be removed by air handling Important to follow procedures appropriate to your application What is appropriate for one industry may not be appropriate for another Most important thing is to develop standard procedures and FOLLOW THEM
Surfaces are important
The efficiency of these cleaning methods depends on the surface being cleaned Rough or pitted surfaces are more difficult to clean Sharp corners are difficult to clean Why are inside surfaces of cleanrooms smooth?
Vacuuming
Dry and wet
Dry has low (<25% ) efficiency for particles smaller than 10 microns (about .0005 inches) wet uses liquids which result in greater force on the particles and hence better cleaning
Wet wiping
Can be very efficient Liquid breaks some bonds between surface and particles and allows particles to float off Those adhering on surface can be rubbed off and retained in wiper. Must be careful not to redeposit particles Efficiency varies
Cleaning liquids
No ideal cleaning liquid Most facilities use DI water or isopropyl alcohol with disinfectant Water with surfactant and disinfectant may be used as well as alcohol-water solutions The choice depends on what works, cost, history, etc.
Materials Selection
Choice of materials for supplies, equipment, gowning, etc. is important Clean materials can become dirty!! Look for easy-to-clean materials Triboelectricity can cause static problems, as can low humiditythis exacerbates contamination problems Biofilms!!
Outline
IntroductionCleanroom definitions Facility design & layout principles Air flow Contamination Cleaning & Materials Selection
The user!! Protocols to improve control
Conclusions
Impact of the Cleanroom User
Truth: Manufacturers can achieve similar yield results using cost effective flow hoods and isolation chambers as with full-blown central cleanrooms BUT: user behavior is much more critical in these areas!!!
Cleanroom garments
Gowning at the LCI, I
Put on plastic shoe covers (booties) over your shoes in the hallway If you wear boots or other heavy contaminating shoes, consider keeping a pair of sneakers in your office for use in the cleanroom Open door and enter cleanroom Log in on computer at entrance Put on gowning gloves
Gowning at the LCI, II
Put on hairnet If using Class 10K south only, put on lab smock and proceed to usage area
If using main cleanroom, proceed to gowning room Pick up an appropriately sized head cover and put on If previously in cleanroom, can use garment stored on hanger
Gowning at the LCI, III
Pick up an appropriately sized coverall and put on, being careful to avoid allowing coverall to touch floor Tuck head cover into coverall before zipping up coverall Pick up an appropriately sized set of shoe covers and put on over plastic booties and coverall; snap shoe cover to back of pant leg and pull tight Put on second set of gloves, being careful to pull glove over cuff of coverall Put on safety glasses and proceed to air shower
Common Protocol Violations
Not wearing Safety Glasses Improper gowning
zippers, snaps, masks
Non-cleanroom materials in cleanroom
paper, cardboard, personnel items
Not cleaning up after you are finished General conduct
Fast motions, incorrect carrying of materials Remember laminar flow; minimize turbulence
Effect of the Cleanroom User
Activity and Particle Generation
User behavior has huge effect on particle generation (from Ramstorp)
General Cleanroom User Requirements I
Minimize sources of contaminants
No smoking No cosmetics Avoid high particulate clothing, such as wool sweaters Cover up! Uncovered skin can lead to more contamination
Activity and Contamination
(from Ramstorp)
Protocols to Improve Contamination Control
Follow gowning procedures and restrict materials used in cleanroom An educated worker is essential to proper job performance; workers should be well versed in the how and why of their job
You as the User I
Very important to think about each and every action you take:
How does this affect cleanliness? Why do we do this the way we do? Is there a better way to do it? What will happen if I do not follow proper protocols? You should know the answers to all of these questions!
You as the User II
Cleanroom environment is very fragile!
Your actions have impact on other users
Important to follow procedures EVERY TIME
Make sure fellow workers follow procedures as well; nothing wrong with pointing out mistakes Be an active participant: keep an eye out for areas that can be improved
Minimalism is Good
Bring only required materials into cleanroom; if it is not necessary to perform the task, it should not be there Personnel: only required personnel should be in the clean space Reduce clutterdo not store materials in clean areas unless they have to be there!
Repetition is Good
Follow exact procedures every time Wipe down surfaces with cleanroom wipes before and after every usage Remember: this can seem tedious and unnecessary, but is essential to keeping the cleanroom maintained at its highest levels
Conclusions
Contamination control is a continuous battle User behavior has a critical impact on contamination Proper procedures must be followed at all times Think about your actions! Be an active participant
