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Particulate Contamination
There are six major cleanroom contaminants. All of these are treated in a clean environment to reduce the level of contamination that they cause. These major contaminants are:
Chemical Cleanroom Contamination
A remarkable number of chemicals are used in many cleanroom manufacturing environments. Chemical contamination generally occurs when unwanted chemicals get accidentally added to the desired processing materials.
Bacteria Cleanroom Contamination
Another major source of contamination in cleanroom manufacturing is bacteria. Bacteria are a natural part of the environment and may act as either a chemical or a particulate contaminant, or in the worst case both.
Sources of Cleanroom Contamination
The discussion will now focus on the sources of contamination encountered in cleanroom manufacturing, and briefly discuss some of ways that these contaminants are minimised and why this minisization is important. The major sources of contamination in cleanroom manufacturing are:
Process Chemical Contamination
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.
Clean room airflow
Clean rooms need a lot of air and usually at a controlled temperature and humidity. This means that in most facilities the cleanrooms Air Handling Units (AHU) consume over 60% of all the site power. As a general rule of thumb, the cleaner the cleanroom needs to be, the more air it will need to use. To reduce the expense of modifying the ambient temperature or humidity, AHU or systems are designed to recirculate (if product characteristics permit) about 80% air through the room, removing particulate contamination as is it generated and whilst keeping the temperature and humidity stable.
