CleanRooms articles from May 2006

CleanRooms archives from May 2006

Smarten up, people!(contamination control)(Editorial)
May 1, 2006... Ok, maybe the headline is a bit disingenuous, but I'm actually not writing to castigate anyone for his or her poor judgment or lack of intelligence. Rather, I'm writing to call attention to a potentially great information-gathering and...

Filter industry is standardizing, hopefully, on a standard.(technical standards)
May 1, 2006... Unlike heads, two technical standards aren't better than one. That's a reason given for the end-of-March announcement of the revival, after decades of dormancy, of ISO Technical Committee (TC) 142 covering cleaning equipment for air and other...

Contact lenses in compliance, but component interactions could be cause of recent outbreak.(news)
May 1, 2006... Although the outbreak last month of contact lens-related Fusarium keratitis bore the initial markings of a manufacturing-related contamination problem, government and industry officials involved with the investigation are close to fingering a...

Three ISO cleanroom documents now American National Standards.(news)
May 1, 2006... The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) recently announced that three ISO/TC 209 Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments documents have become American National Standards: ISO 14644-3, Test Methods; ISO 14644-5,...

Contamination control in space: containment a key issue as space agencies move closer to collecting Mars samples.(news)
May 1, 2006... As US and European space agencies enter the next phase of Mars exploration, during which surface and subsurface samples will be collected for analysis in spacecraft-borne laboratories and, eventually, in a laboratory on Earth, scientists are...

Semiconductor industry capital spending to increase 10 percent: total expected to be second highest on record.
May 1, 2006... IC Insights, a market research firm in Scottsdale, Arizona, recently altered its 2006/2005 worldwide semiconductor industry capital spending forecast, increasing its figures 6 percent, to +10 percent. This past January, the company released a...

CHIPS: defects dodged at the nanoscale level.(PARTICLES)
May 1, 2006... Defects in fabrication and errors during operation will become a fact of life for electronic circuits at the nanoscale. To compensate, researchers are crafting schemes to correct fabrication defects and processing errors on the fly. Georgia...

Model food-emergency response plan released.(United States. Food Safety and Inspection Service, United States. Food and Drug Administration, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in cooperation with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has announced the...

The ITRS and AMC: more control on the way?(setting the standard)
May 1, 2006... To those charged with establishing and maintaining the appropriate controlled environments for leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing, airborne molecular contamination (AMC) can appear to be a moving target. Sulfur dioxide, ozone, and...

Device for storing and moving substrate cassettes.
May 1, 2006... Semiconductor devices are made on substrates, such as silicon wafers or glass plates. These devices are made by a sequence of fabrication steps. Substrates must be transported between processing stations for at least some of the fabrication...

Wafer cleaning method and resulting wafer.
May 1, 2006... To fabricate an integrated circuit on a semiconductor substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, multiple layers of conductive or insulative materials are patterned and formed upon one another. In order to preserve circuit continuity, it is...

Cleanroom market misconceptions: sometimes what appears logical is, in fact, incorrect when it comes to cleanroom markets and technologies.
May 1, 2006... The common wisdom relative to cleanroom markets and technology is not necessarily always right. One of the most important misconceptions has to do with filtration efficiency. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Filter efficiency on nanoparticles is...

Monitoring AMC: protect your yield from molecular contaminants.(airborne molecular contamination )
May 1, 2006... Counting and measuring particles in the cleanroom has never been a satisfactory way to manage airborne molecular contamination (AMC), as particles are different from gases. While controlling the number and size of particles is an obvious and...

A look at the future of reactivity monitoring for cleanroom AMC: characterizing the destructive potential of corrosive contaminants.(airborne molecular contamination )
May 1, 2006... The control of airborne molecular contamination (AMC) continues to grow as a requirement for all advanced semiconductor manufacturing. With more fabs using copper processing and 300 mm wafers, and as we move into the 65 nm technology node, the...

Preparing for cleanroom certification and validation: do you know everything that's needed to get your cleanroom tested?
May 1, 2006... How important is it to know what you are getting into? A good portion of new clients that call me say they have just finished building their cleanroom and need it tested. It is rare that they understand what kind of testing is needed beyond...

Guidelines for accurate cleanroom CFD modeling: all relevant physics and heat sources must be considered.(computational fluid dynamics)
May 1, 2006... Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has proven its value and its validity in simulating cleanrooms. However, the user's engineering judgment is still crucial to a successful CFD modeling job. When applying CFD software, caution must be taken to...

Cleanroom storage systems.(product spotlight)
May 1, 2006... Indeed, there are hundreds and hundreds of storage system manufacturers. However, there are only a few whose products are compatible with the special needs inherent in a cleanroom environment. Here is a selection of cleanroom storage systems...

New, innovative wipers.(new products)
May 1, 2006... Milliken has announced the release of its new wiper innovation, Anticon[R] with Particle Attraction Technology (PAT). These wipers are not only clean to begin with (exhibiting low fibers and particles), but they provide a differential amount of...

Antimicrobial for keyboards and mice.(new products)
May 1, 2006... Man & Machine, Inc. (MMI) and Envirosystems recently announced that MMI is the exclusive provider of BioShield 75 for medical keyboards and mice. BioShield 75 is a new patent-protected, EPA-approved coating that has excellent antimicrobial...

Complete line of wipers.(new products)
May 1, 2006... Kimberly-Clark Professional has introduced a complete line of dry, presaturated, and sterile Kimtech Pure* Wipers for all cleanroom environments. The new product line now includes both dry and sterile Kimtech Pure* CL3 Wipers, which can be used...

Flexible ultrapure water system.(new products)
May 1, 2006... Millipore Corp. has announced the availability of a flexible ultrapure water system that can be placed anywhere in the laboratory. The new Simplicity system is easy to install and produces ultrapure water on demand from pretreated water...

Spray-cleaning minienvironment.(new products)
May 1, 2006... The CleanStation from PurC[O.sub.2] integrates C[O.sub.2] snow cleaning into a minienvironment engineered specifically for precision spray cleaning. Within the generous, illuminated work space, recirculating air is heated, HEPA-filtered, and...

Mobile decontamination unit.(new products)
May 1, 2006... A new mobile decontamination unit equipped with multipatented, high-output UVC technology is now available from Steril-Aire. The Remedial In-Room Decontamination System (RIDS) provides a safe and effective way to decontaminate surfaces infested...

Waterproof medical keyboard.(new products)
May 1, 2006... Man & Machine, Inc. (MMI) has announced the release of the Simply Cool medical keyboard designed to promote infection control and patient safety. The keyboard is designed to be economical, cost-effective, and rugged. To help deter the spread of...

Protein research applications guide.(New Literature)
May 1, 2006... Millipore has announced the availability of the newest edition of its Protein Research Applications Guide, a publication that features the latest tools for purifying, concentrating, and identifying protein samples. The company's...

Redesigned catalog.(New Literature)
May 1, 2006... Fisher Scientific has announced the release of the newly redesigned 2006/07 Fisher Catalog. This 2600-page hardbound catalog contains more than 44,000 scientific and laboratory products from Fisher and other industry-leading manufacturers. The...

Filtration and separation product catalog.(New Literature)
May 1, 2006... Millipore Corp. has announced the availability of its multilanguage 2006 Biopharmacuetical Filtration & Separation Product Catalogue on CD-ROM. This electronic catalog contains detailed product information--in English, French, Spanish, German,...

Calendar.
May 1, 2006... MAY 9-11 SEMICON Singapore 2006. Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Center, Singapore. For more information: www.semi.org. MAY 10 ESD Association's How To's of In-Plant ESD Auditing and Evaluation Measurements...