CleanRooms articles from May 2002

CleanRooms archives from May 2002

SIA cancer debate heats up: SIA responds to recommendations from advisory committee, plots two-pronged course.(Semiconductor Industry Association)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... SAN JOSE, CA--THE LONG-RUNning debate about whether or not semiconductor cleanrooms cause health problems has heated up again. The latest flare-up began with a March 20th news release from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA; San...

CDC tackles antimicrobial resistance.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... ATLANTA, GA--IT HAPPENS ALL TOO often: A person goes to the hospital for something as simple as a sprain and they catch a hospital-borne illness that pummels their immune system. Federal health officials estimate that nearly two million...

Botched recall investigation continues: according to the FDA's CDRH, Olympus has history of problems.(Center for Devices and Radiological Health)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... BALTIMORE, MD--A SPOKESperson from Olympus America Inc. (Melville, NY) says the recall of some 4,700 faulty bronchoscopes is going well, and the hospital that recently traced a deadly lung virus to the medical device continues to evaluate how...

FDA recalls OB/GYN devices, manufacturer MIA Compliance focuses on contamination control.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... ALPHARETTA, GA--EXECUTIVES OF A medical-device manufacturer here have reportedly left the country amid a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation and recall of obstetric and gynecological surgical devices that were labeled...

Mad cow comes stateside.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... ATLANTA, GA--OFFICIALS AT THE CENters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating the first suspected case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), the human variant of mad cow disease. The CDC, along with Florida Department of...

Ashland Electronic Chemicals achieves certification. (Particles).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Ashland Specialty Chemical Co. (Dublin, OH), a division of Ashland Inc., has been awarded QS 9000 certification at its worldwide manufacturing plants that produce wet-process and photresist strippers for the semiconductor industry. The...

NCCF, CTI team to fight childhood cancer. (Particles).(National Children's Cancer Foundation)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The National Children's Cancer Foundation (NCCF) has teamed with CT International (CTI), a California-based glove and specialty product manufacturer and pharmaceutical distributor. CTI will donate a percentage of their proceeds to the...

Space equipment cleanroom. (Particles).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Japan's Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. has built a cleanroom for the test assembly of space equipment at its business foothold in Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo. IHI is now integrating all its space equipment operations,...

Conexant and The Carlyle Group enter agreement. (Particles).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Conexant Systems, Inc. (Newport Beach, CA) and The Carlyle Group (Washington, DC) have signed a definitive agreement to establish an ISO-9000 certified wafer fab, which will have 100,000 square feet of ISO Class 3 cleanroom space. Under...

EPA approves anti-microbial surface coating. (Particles).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Alistagen Corp. (New York, NY) announced that its natural mineral-based, anti-microbial surface coating Caliwel has received U.S. retail market clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Through independent testing the...

Applied opens next-generation lab. (Particles).(Applied Materials Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Applied Materials, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) has opened a new Process Module Technology Center in Sunnyvale, CA. The new facility is equipped with yield enhancement and automation technologies for the manufacturing of 100 nanometer and below...

Let's get our priorities straight. (Viewpoint).(Brief Article)(Column)
May 1, 2002... Our readers have noticed that we've broadened the scope of our news coverage. Sure, news of new standards, technology and procedure implementation at clean facilities around the nation will always make the cover; however, much of our recent...

Letters.
May 1, 2002... Energy conservation importance understated I was reading Ken Goldstein's "Unfiltered" column "Energy conservation: Where should it fall on your list of priorities?" in the on-line version of CleanRooms and I take some exceptions to...

The ubiquitous R/O and how it works: no membrane role is larger or more important than its role in the operation and success of reverse osmosis (R/O) equipment, the workhorse of today's high-quality ultrapure water (UPW) systems. (Electronics).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... R/Os generally remove more than 90 percent of the contaminants in the water fed to them and enable downstream ion-exchange columns to polish that water to the high quality needed by the users. R/Os also are used in smaller, less demanding roles...

Understanding the four areas of contamination-control expertise for containment system success. (Life Sciences).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Developing a knowledge base to service the complete array of contamination-control issues is a formable task. The key is to remember that no one knows it all. Rather, individuals who are successful in delivering solutions have a network of...

A project planned to the nanometer: catalyst for even smaller technologies now becoming part of the site plan. (Built to Spec).
May 1, 2002... The nanometer may be rocking the worlds of science, but a maker of motion-control platforms insists that the term is used too loosely. "We see the word 'nanometer' thrown around too easily these days," says Michael Backman, director of...

Sectors of medical device industry poised to get cleaner: to consider the controls needed for clean environments in this market as simplistic would be a mistake, especially with the rise of bioMEMS. (Special Report).
May 1, 2002... If there is such a thing as a typical clean environment for medical device manufacturers it would be an ISO Class 8 (Class 100,000) cleanroom accompanied by strict procedures to eliminate any chance of biological contamination on the finished...

Sterile filling method and device. (Inventor's corner).(Patent no. 6,351,924 B1)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The invention is a method for sterilizing, filling and closing packaging containers that are open on one end. Packaging containers (A) bottles move along a conveyor (B) into a hygienic chamber (C), where they are exposed to a sterilizing...

Thermal sterilization verification. (Inventor's corner).(Patent no. 6,340,590 B1)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A spectrophotometer reads selected wavelengths on the test ampoule and directs them through a connector, which are then processed by a computer. The thermal sterilization indicator process, apparatus and test indicator enables the detection of...

Smock and fabric. (Inventor's corner).(Patent No. 6,348,116 B1; dustproof)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A dustproof fabric for use in manufacturing a cleanroom smock in a semiconductor environment includes an inner layer of a knitted fabric (A), an intermediate layer attached to the inner layer (B), a non-micro porous polyurethane resin film...

Filter. (Inventor's corner).(Patent no. 6,352,578 B1)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A particle absorber is fixed on the surface of the honeycomb structure (A) that is formed by placing a thin flat sheet (B) between the corrugated sheet (C) using a powder such as talc, kaolin mineral, bentonite, diatom earth, silica, alumina a...

Packaging method. (Inventor's corner).(Patent no. 6,351,925 B2)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The packing method for an object to be transported into or within a cleanroom can reduce the amount of waste, according to the inventors. Packing material (A), which wraps an object (B) to be carried in a cleanroom (C) is composed of a low...

Improving the repeatability and reproducibility of the Helmke Drum test method: after 1991 lab tests found ambiguities, IEST Working Group 003 set out to revise test methods through subtle changes in equipment and process.
May 1, 2002... Editor's Note: A technical session on the results of this paper was presented at CleanRooms West 2001 in San Jose, CA. The Helmke Drum test method, as described in the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology's recommended...

Megasonic cleaning charts a course to the big time: as the semiconductor industry moves to 300 MM, it's being challenged to create processes that are more uniform and repeatable. Non-contact acoustic cleaning could be a key to the puzzle.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Non-contact acoustic cleaning-megasonics--is becoming a more readily recognized technology now that semiconductor manufacturers are converting to 300 mm processing and are ready to meet the more stringent requirements of single-wafer cleaning....

Equipment: the places it goes. (Product Spotlight).(BioMailSolutions)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Equipment of the contamination-control nature continues to evolve inside and outside of the cleanroom. On the far end of the spectrum is BioMailSolutions, a system designed by Lockheed Martin (Owego, NY) for keeping mail and documents free...

Differential pressure transmitter. (New Products).(LPX 1000LCD Series)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Druck Inc.'s LPX 1000LCD Series is a wet/wet differential pressure transmitter suited for replacement of mechanical gauges used in cleanroom HVAC monitoring and control. It's available in two diameters, allowing installation directly into...

Stainless steel mesh gloves. (New Products).(from C&K Manufacturing and Sales Co.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... C&K Manufacturing and Sales Co., LLC offers protection against cuts, lacerations, puncture wounds and abrasions with its Great Defender stainless steel mesh gloves. Available in three styles, the machine-welded rings of 2l gauge stainless steel...

Gowning racks. (New Products).
May 1, 2002... This expanded line of gowning racks is designed for Class 1 to Class 100,000 cleanroom operations and are available in three finishes: chrome-plates; brushed stainless steel and electropolished 304 stainless steel. Models feature hanger slots,...

HEPA air-cleaning filters. (New Products).
May 1, 2002... RPS Products, Inc. has custom manufacturing capabilities for OEM and private-label design solutions. Using either HEPA or HEPA-Type filter solutions, RPS can custom tailor any HEPA filtration products to the following: packs framed or unframed,...

SiC heaters. (New Products).
May 1, 2002... These SiC heaters are designed for use in process chambers where rapid heating to high temperature with low contamination is necessary. Fabricated from high purity chemical vapor deposition (CVD) silicon carbide, the heaters have good wear...

Baffled liners. (New Products).
May 1, 2002... B.A.G. Corp.'s MaxLiner formed liner is for flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBCs). It's a cube liner with added internal baffles, which provide the benefits of a square container with the added protection of a barrier for FIBCs. The...

Laser safety eyewear. (New Products).
May 1, 2002... This line of UNEX LSK-series laser safety eyewear has a wrap-around look. To decrease liability and injuries, the laser safety officers require employees working around lasers to wear safety eyewear that reduces radiation to a Class 1 level....

Shellcase opens expanded facility. (Particles). (Jerusalem, Israel).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Shellcase has opened its $8 million expanded production facility in Jerusalem with 15,000 square feet of ISO Class 6 and ISO Class 7 clean rooms. The expansion began in May 2001 following the closing of a $20 million private placement in...

Ashland Specialty Chemical Company raises prices. (Particles).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Electronic Chemical Division of Ashland Specialty Chemical company (Dublin, OH) announced a price increase from 5 to 15 percent for many of its ultrapure wet-process chemicals and ACT strippers that it produces and supplies to the...

Air cleaners improve air quality. (Particles). (Duracell China Ltd.).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Environmental Dynamics Group received a congratulatory notice from Duracell (China) Limited regarding the efficiency of Dynamic Air Cleaners at its Dongguan, China plant. The Dynamic Air Cleaners were installed by Alison Technologies...

Cleanroom airflow measurement: velocity, air changes per hour or percent filter coverage? (Unfiltered).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Owners, designers and builders banter constantly about 90 feet-per-minute velocity, 600 air changes per hour, and 100 percent filter coverage. What does this all mean, and why can't we settle on a single method of describing airflow? When...