Vacuum/volume 35/numbers 1 &l 1 /pages 485 to 491 /I 985 0042-207X/85$3.00 + .

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Printed in Great Britain Pergamon Press Ltd

Clean room technology: the concept of total

environmental control for advanced industries
H H Schicht, Luwa Ltd, Anemonenstrasse 40, Ziirich, Switzerland

An ultraclean environment is a fundamental production factor in many advanced industries making use of thin
film technology. The manufacture of very large scale integration (VLSI) semiconductors and of compact discs
are two prominent examples. The cleanliness requirements defined in universally recognized standards such as
the US Federal Standard 2096 are no longer sufficient to cover the recent advances in clean room applications.
Therefore, an extension both to lower particle concentrations as well as to lower particle sizes is required. The
separation efficiency of clean room air filters has recently been extended to 99.9999%. This achievement
together with the application of the principle of low turbulence displacement flow permits the required clean air
environment to be obtained in the working areas for the most demanding research and production tasks.
Various design options for creating an ultraclean environment are discussed. Besides air cleanliness, temperature
and humidity control to very tight tolerances as well as efficient protection against vibrations are required for
the clean room facility. Thus, modern clean room technology signifies the integration of a wide range of
technical specialities into coherent and truly multidimensional problem solutions.

1. Introduction
Table 1. Line spacing and critical particle diameters for high density
The objective of clean room technology is to establish and integrated circuits according to Edmark and Quackenbos’
maintain in working environments an internal atmosphere devoid
of particulate contamination. This is done to avoid harmful effects Storage Line spacing Minimum critical Market
of particles on the processes to be safeguarded, the products density on wafer particle diameter dominance
(kbit) (pm) (pm) period
manufactured and frequently also on the personnel involved in the
operation.
16 4.0 0.4 1981-1984
The manufacture of very large scale integration (VLSI) 64 2.5 0.3 1984-1988
semiconductors and of compact discs are just two prominent 256 1.5 0.17 1984-1988
application fields where thin film technology is directly involved. 1 x lo3 0.9 0.09 1988-1990+
There are, however, many others ranging from the manufacture of 4 x 103 0.5 0.05 1988-1990+
photographic films, magnetic and video tapes, precision mechan-
isms, sterile drugs and antibiotics to the hospital field, where clean
room technology is employed in ultraclean operation theatres and
2. Cleanliness definitions
intensive care units for, e.g. the treatment of leukemia and severe
burns. The following definitions of the most important terms are based
This wide utilization range of clean room technology has substantially on the US Federal Standard 209b of 24 July 1973
provided firms active in this field not only with fascinating (with amendments dated 30 May 1976)‘.
technical challenges, but also with a voluminous and quickly Air cleanliness in a work area implies the absence of impurities
expanding market. in the form of dust particles or ultrafine liquid droplets (mist).
Today’s rigorous cleanliness requirements can be illus- Air cleanliness is measured as particle counts, i.e. as a particle
trated dramatically with the example of the actual develop- concentration (number of particles per unit of volume). The
ment going on in the VLSI semiconductor field. In Table 1, the instrument normally employed is the scattered light particle
critical particle diameter is given as a function of the storage counter, permitting identification of particles down to 0.3 pm dia.
density and the line spacing of the chip. It can be seen that within Laser particle counters extend the minimum detectable particle
less than a decade, the storage density increased 250-fold, whereas size down to around 0.1 pm, whereas condensation nucleus
the critical particle diameter, i.e. the maximum size of dust counters extend it still further to about 0.02 pm.
particles that can be tolerated in the production environment, Starting from the numerical values of the particle count, air
suffered a lo-fold reduction. cleanliness classes can be defined in order to identify the quality of

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 H H Schicht: Clean room technology: the concept of total environmental control for advanced industries

a controlled working environment. The most demanding air -the outside air, with particle concentrations of lo’-lo8 particles
cleanliness level established in the US Federal Standard 209b is a > 0.5 pm mm 3 (the figures vary greatly according to the density of
cleanliness class 100, equal to a maximum concentration of 100 industrialization and settlement and also the weather situation);
particles ft - 3, referring to particles of 0.5 pm dia and more. For -the liberation of particles by equipment, machinery and
the forthcoming generations of VLSI semiconductors, with a processes (which can vary between extremely wide limits);
minimum line spacing of 0.5 pm in the case of a 4 Mbit storage -the liberation of particles by man (while working away quietly,
element, the critical particle size will drop to 0.05 pm. It is a person will give off approximately 100,000 dust particles
therefore obvious that the present official cleanliness definitions >0.3 pm and more than 1000 bacteria and spores per minute).
are grossly inadequate.
How can we reduce these high concentrations of small and
Revision of the official cleanliness standards has been initiated
ultrafine particles to the levels acceptable in clean rooms? We
to bring them in line again with the users’ necessities. Until the
have to use both filtration and aerodynamic measures.
availability of the new standards, no commonly accepted
language base will exist. Thus, for the time being, individual
guarantee values will have to be agreed between supplier and
3. Air filtration
customer covering both the particle concentration as well as the
corresponding particle size. A tendency can be observed to For air jiltration, multi-stage filter installations are employed,
establish 0.1 pm, i.e. the minimum particle size detectable with a with HEPA,filters, i.e. high efficiency particulate air filters as the
laser particle counter, as the lowest recognized particle size. The final and decisive element. HEPA filters are available in various
critical particle size for the 4 Mbit chip would therefore already be qualities, as defined, for example, by the German Standard DIN
outside the scope of these definitions. In order to avoid this 24 184: type testing of HEPA Filters (Table 3).
undesirable situation and to design a useful life span into the The separation efficiencies indicated in Table 3 are as measured
forthcoming generation of cleanliness standards, we suggest by means of the paraffin oil test. As test aerosol, a mist of fine
extrapolation of the cleanliness standard down to a particle size of paraffin oil droplets is employed, with a maximum particle
0.02 pm, i.e. down to the detection limit of the condensation diameter < 1 pm and a most probable particle diameter in the
nucleus counter. This proposal is shown in Table 2. range 0.3 -0.5 pm. For filters of class S, the absence of leaks in the
filter itself, its gaskets and the framing structure has to be proved
in addition to the minimum separation efficiency.
Table 2. Luwa proposal for extrapolating the US Fed. Std. 209b’
Table 3. Quality classification of HEPA filters according to DIN 24 1843
Cleanliness Particles ft 3 equal to and greater than
class 0.02 pm 0.1 pm 0.5 /lrn 5pm
Minimum separation
Quality class efficiency (7;)
1 (new) lo3 3x10 * *
10 (new) IO4 3x lo2 10 *
100 t 3x lo3 loz * 85
1000 t lo3 I X lo0 i? 98
IX 10 s 99.97
10,000 : 104
100,000 : t 10s IX lo2

For the cleanliness requirements of the class 1 and class 10,

* Indication not meaningful for statistical reasons.
t Indication not relevant for the definition of cleanliness requirements. clean room, the traditional S class HEPA filters are no longer
adequate. As the cleanliness requirements for the clean rooms
have become up to 100 times more exacting, filter performance
In a working environment, three particle sources contribute in had to follow suit. Table 4 shows, as an example, a comparison of
establishing the particle concentration of the room air: the technical data of typical R- and S-class HEPA-filters with the

Table 4. Technical data of the Luwa@ RR-R and RR-S HEPA filters in comparison with the new RR-T ULPA filter

Product denomination RR-R RR-S RR-T

Nominal face velocity 1.00 0.80 0.60
Nominal air flow rate per m2 face area 3600 2880 2160
Initial pressure drop at nominal face velocity 140 250 250
Quality classification as per DIN 24184 R S *
Flammability classification as per DIN 53438 Kl/Fl Kl/Fl Kl/Fl
Maximum continuous temperature 100 100 100
Initial separation efficiency
Paraffin oil mist test dia 0.34.5 pm (DIN 24184) 99.2 99.99 t
Sodium flame test (BS 3928) 97.8 99.999 t
DOP test (US Mil Std 282) >95 99.99 t
Test with condensation nucleus counter, 99.99 99.9999
Dia 2 0.02 pm

* Classification ruling not yet established.

t Test method not suitable because of insufficient measuring range of the particle counter specified.

486
H H Schicht: Clean room technology: the concept of total environmental control for advanced industries

Figure 2. Pleating of HEPA filter medium according to the American

philosophy.

Figure 1. Microscopic view of the filter medium of high-quality HEPA

filters.

new ULPA filters, i.e. ultra low penetration air filters developed
for this application field.
How are HEPA and ULPA filters constructed? As filter
medium a paper-like fleece of extremely fine glass fibres (Figure 1)
is employed. In order to increase the storage capacity, the fibre
arrangement is rather loose, the mean distance between fibres
being considerably higher than the mean fibre diameter. The
penetration velocity of the air through the filter medium is in the
order of l/2 cm s-l. For the filtration of the suspended matter,
three effects are above all responsible:

-the screening effect by which not only particles bigger than the
distance between fibres are retained but also particles whose
streamline passes so near to a fibre that they collide with it;
-the inertia effect, important above all for particles above 1 pm in
Figure 3. The minipleat principle as employed on Luwa@ filters.
size, where particles are thrown out of their streamline when it
deviates sharply to pass a fibre of the filter medium;
-the dijjfusioneffect, predominant for particles below 0.1 pm in
size, where the constant collisions of the particles with the
molecules of the surrounding gas lead to an erratic particle path
(Brownian movement). It is then a question of statistics whether a
particle collides with a fibre or not, so if a large number of fibres
have to be passed by the particle, the separation probability gets
very high.

Due to the low penetration velocity of the air through the filter
paper, pleating is necessary in order to arrive at compact filter
units. There exist two basic philosophies as to pleating:

-the American philosophy, employing pleats of 15-30 cm depth,

with distance holders of corrugated aluminium sheet metal in
between the paper pleats (Figure 2);
-the European mini-pleat philosophy, as evidenced by the
HEPA and ULPA filters of Luwa manufacture, employing low-
depth pleats of narrow spacing, with distance holding by threads
of yarn (Figure 3). Figure 4. Luwa@ ULPA filters, manufactured according to the minipleat
principle, with a separation efficiency of 99.9999”,, if tested with the
The pleated filter medium is fitted into filter frames of condensation nucleus counter.

487
 H H Schicht: Clean room technology: the concept of total environmental control for advanced industries

standardized dimensions. A typical range of T-class ULPA filters Flow velocities should be sufficiently high to keep thermal
manufactured according to the mini-pleat principle is shown in currents originating from heat dissipating surfaces under effective
Figure 4. control. They will normally be in the range of 0.3-0.5 m s-t.

4. Flow patterm for clean areas 5. Design aspects

High quality filtration alone is not sufficient to establish the A drawback of laminar flow is the very high air flow rates
required cleanliness level in the working areas. It must be taken required, with their consequent economical penalties. The clean
into consideration that man and running equipment liberate room designer therefore aims at limiting the laminar flow areas to
particles at fantastic rates. The traditional flow pattern used in air the absolute minimum and at adopting the minimum air velocities
conditioning, i.e. turbulent mixing flow (Figure 5) is capable of compatible with the given cleanliness requirements.
coping only with relatively modest cleanliness requirements: the Design basis is the layout ofthe machinery and equipment, and
HEPA filtered air enters the room via conventional ceiling the specific cleanliness requirements for processes, material
diffusers and mixes immediately with the room air. Thus, handling and circulation areas. The more exactly they are known,
cleanliness is achieved by diluting the impurities liberated in the the more specifically can the clean room concept be adapted to the
room. situation. Open-minded collaboration between the supplier ofthe
clean room system and the end user is absolutely essential, if
Air distributing element optimum compromise between quality and flexibility on one
hand, and investment and running cost on the other hand, are to
HEPA filter / False ,ceiling be achieved.
If only very small areas have to be protected with clean air, e.g.
in a research laboratory, clean benches as shown in Figure 7 can
Supply air
provide a simple, cost-effective solution. Such clean benches are
plug-in units, they operate with air aspirated from the room and
are thus independent of its air conditioning system.

HEPA filter Illumination

Return air

Figure 5. Conventional clean room with turbulent mixing flow, adequate

for air cleanliness requirements of class 1000 to 100,000.

For the high cleanliness requirements of class 100 and better,

which predominate in the thin film area, low-turbulence displace-
ment flow, also called laminar flow, has to be employed. Here, air
moves along parallel flow paths (Figure 6), which permits the ,,Prefilter
particles liberated in the room to be carried away as quickly and
directly as possible. This kind offlow is established by introducing
the supply air into the room through walls or ceilings built up SUPPlYair
from HEPA or ULPA filters or through special clean air
distributing elements.

I
I I
Return air ‘///I////// // /” / /
Supply air
1 HEPA filter ceiling I Figure 7. Clean work station with low-turbulence horizontal displacement
flow.

It If the protection needs become more extensive it is advan-

tageous to integrate the provisioning of clean air into a central air
handling system. Not only can thus a lot of flexibility be designed
into the system’s solution, but also very energy efficient concepts
can be achieved4. In this case, different alternatives for air
distribution present themselves, ranging from spot protection of
isolated work stations and clean tunnels to complete laminar flow
Per forited floor rooms of vast dimensions.
Figure 6. Clean room with low-turbulence displacement flow oriented
Let us concentrate on applications in the integrated circuit field.
vertically downwards, for air cleanliness requirements of class 100 or There, three basic options exist for the layout of the production
better. area :
H H Schichtc Clean room technology: the concept of total environmental control for advanced industries

-spot protection;
-the extensive clean room;
-the clean tunnel concept.

5.1. Spot protection Spot protection of the charging and

discharging end of an ultra high vacuum ion implanter is shown in
Figure 8. HEPA filtered air supplied by a central air handling
system is discharged vertically downwards from a plenum
chamber situated above the critical area of the ion implanter. For
establishing the laminar flow, a special air distribution element
using a double screen of woven polyester cloth5 is used in this case.
A class 100 cleanliness level is maintained in the critical areas,
whereas a class 10,000 condition is maintained in the rest of the
room by simple spill-over from the different class 100 areas
protecting selected work stations throughout the room.
Spot protection as described is clearly the most economic
application of centralized clean room systems.
Figure 9. Luwa@ vertical flow clean room with continuous filter ceiling
and floor openings for the return air.

-easy adaptation of the production space to changing operative

requirements or layout alterations;
-simple design using standardized filter ceiling concepts permitt-
ing easy combination with wall systems of the same modular
dimensions;
-simple air handling systems with constant supply temperature
and no subdivision into control zones.

But let us not forget the negative aspects:

-due to the extensive areas under laminar flow, high air flow
rates and therefore high energy cost for air circulation;
-security risks due to the limited number of fire sections and of
air handling systems;
-extensive subterranean space necessary for the return air
plenum chamber.

5.3. The clean tunnel concept. In clean tunnels (Figure lo), the
process equipment is normally arranged in double lines adjacent
to the lateral walls. There is normally a services and maintenance
area on the other side of the wall. The establishment of the
laminar flow is brought down as closely as feasible to the process
Figure 8. Spot protection of the charging and discharging area of a ion equipment to be protected. In the example shown, laminar flow is
implanter by means of low-turbulence displacement flow oriented produced with special air distribution elements consisting of a
vertically downwards, established by means of a LuwaO air distributing
double screen made of fine mesh polyester fabri?. This permits
element of CG type.
positioning of the illumination elements and an eventual ion
control system upstream of the distributors so that they have no
5.2. The extensive clean room. In the case of the extensive clean disturbing effect on the laminar flow field. Return air is normally
room, the entire ceiling area is conceived as a filter ceiling removed through openings in the lateral walls of each tunnel
establishing low turbulence displacement flow directed vertically module, into the maintenance area situated behind..
downwards (Figure 9). The return air is normally removed The principal advantages of the tunnel concept are the
through openings in the floor, so that vertical flow is maintained following:
throughout. Removing the return air sideways through openings
-air cleanliness requirements can be differentiated (high require-
in the lower part of the walls remains an option, although only for
ments for process areas, somewhat reduced requirements for
rooms of limited extension, where even so the flow direction can
circulation areas and corridors);
be maintained vertical until well below the working level to
-minimum extension of the laminar flow areas (by interspersing
guarantee the necessary efficient shielding of one work station
active areas with service and maintenance zones);
against another.
-return air extraction laterally into the maintenance areas
What are the advantages of extensive, uninterrupted clean
(thereby eliminating complicated floors and extensive subter-
room areas? The most notable are:
ranean cavities as return air plenum);
-maximum flexibility for the localization of equipment and -low operational cost due to minimized air flow rates;
intermediate partition walls; -high security and simple subdivision into fire sections.

489
H H Schichtc Clean room technology: the concept of total environmental control for advanced industrtes

appropriate sensitivity, accuracy and response characteristics, but

also absolutely stable aerodynamic conditions for the measuring
point. If. for instance, the temperature and humidity sensors are
freely exposed to unidirectional displacement flow then the
necessary environmental stability can be achieved.
In designing the control system. only the very best technology
available will be sufficient for achieving the ambitious goals. In
hardware selection. the interactions between the control system
and the air handling system must not be overlooked. The control
components finally selected will normally be a mix of the most
suitable material available from all the various supply sources: a
truly individual problem solution will have to be evolved for each
specific case. This means that the control system is best treated as
an integrated part of the entire environmental control problem
solution.

7. Protection against vibrations

Figure IO. Clean production area designed according to the tunnel
principle: the work stations are lined up along the lateral and rear walls.
Extreme precautions have to be taken against the transmission of
while the central area is used as a circulation zone with reduced cleanliness vibrations. This starts with the building, and consequently process
requirements. Luwa” clean air drstributors of CC type are used for areas are normally isolated from the technical areas. Production
establishmg the low-turbulence displacement flow. Lighting and eventual and test equipment are, as a rule. supplied complete with the
toni,ation equipment is installed upstream ofthe distributors so that they
necessary protective devices.
cannot disturb the tlow field.
All ducts and pipes of the air handling system have to be
provided with flexible connections where appropriate; also, they
As disadvantages, the following must be mentioned: have to be flexibly suspended from the carrying structure. The
central air handling units have to be vibration-isolated against the
very careful and detailed planning necessary for defining the building, and all fans, even if incorporated into air handling units.
layout of the facility, space requirements for equipment and have to be equipped with vibration absorbers. Care has also to be
material flow sequences; taken that vibrations generated by the transmission of noise and
reduced flexibility to accommodate changing operational re- by turbulence are damped out efficiently.
quirements, equipment substitution and lay-out alterations.

8. Acceptance tests
5.4. Comparison. As regards air cleanliness and the shielding of
work stations against each other, extensive clean room areas and There exist as yet no official standards and recognized practices
the clean tunnel can be considered as equals. for acceptance testing of class 1 and class 10 clean rooms, and it
Also, if the advantages and drawbacks listed above are seems unlikely for such standards to be introduced in the near
compared. no clear-cut general preference for one or the other future. For the time being, therefore, procedures will have to be
concept can be established. The decision between them will have agreed individually between customer and supplier. One thing is
to be taken on a case-by-case basis, according to the peculiar obvious: the traditional instrumentation used for cleanliness class
characteristics of each given situation. This decision does not determination is ~ to say the least of marginal suitability. Of the
always have to be clear-cut which is just as well since the answer instruments presently available, only the condensation nucleus
may be to design part of the facility as open clean area and another counter appears to be adequate: it is sensitive enough, robust and
part according to the tunnel principle. A clean room systems can be easily managed on job-site, although due to its low
designer and manufacturer must offer convincing solutions for sampling rate the response time is undesirably long (it takes a lot
any of these alternatives. of travelling for the sample to proceed from the point of capture to
the counting zone of the instrument!). Therefore. scanning will be
slow and time consuming. so that it is only practical as a
6. Temperature and humidity control
complementary testing method to more conventional procedures.
Besides environmental cleanliness, other aspects have to be Due to the very tight tolerances, tuning and final verification of
considered in mega-chip work which transform environmental the automatic control circuits proves also to be a time consuming
control into a multidimensional problem. Temperature and and tedious process, especially if extensive safety functions are
humidity control justify specific mention here. programmed into the systemh. Verification of the velocity field. on
If sub-micron structures have to be built up on wafers of up to the other hand. does not present any new aspects.
I50 mm dia. then ambient temperatures have to be kept constant
within limits of +O.l C; in parallel, certain processing stages may
9. Operating the clean room
also require constant relative humidities with a tolerance down to
+ loo_To complicate things still more, the temperature level has Running the clean room is a different story altogether. Particle
to be maintained at the same absolute value during all steps of the shedding by man and machine and. in particular. the interactions
production sequence, i.e. over an extended area possibly involving between flow patterns, equipment. product and man present
a number of different rooms. further challenges. Careful investigation of these circumstances in
This means not only measuring and control instruments of the laboratory is indicated in all critical situations. so that

490
H H Schicht: Clean room technology: the concept of total environmental control for advanced industries

improvements can be defined and the correct working procedures different subsystems and professional specialities and, con-
can be established. Where man is involved, adequate clean room sequently, split into numerous specialized contracts, then inter-
garments and careful training are the basic precautions. All this is face problems are bound to occur: interface problems of difficult
to be backed up by performance monitoring of the operation as a solution and of difficult responsibility assignment. Even if they can
whole. be solved ultimatelyPnormally at considerable expenditure of
Outside working hours, the air circulation system should be time and costPonly rarely will the final result be better than mere
kept running, so that no contamination can accumulate on the corrective patchwork.
clean side of filters and eventual protection and air distribution Is it really worthwhile taking such risks in a production factor
elements installed downstream of them. In order to save energy, so fundamentally important to advanced industries as high-
the ventilators can be run at 50% speed during these periods. performance clean rooms?

10. Final remarks

References
Modern high quality clean rooms are environmental control
systems in the widest sense. They encompass, besides cleanliness, ’ K W Edmark and G Quackenbos, Microcontaminarion. No lO/ll, 47
temperature and humidity control; wall, floor and ceiling systems; (1984).
air handling technology; vibration protection and many other ’ U.S. Federal Standard 209b. Clean room and work station require-
ments, controlled environment, U.S. Federal Government General
aspects. They can therefore be considered genuine multi- Services Administration, Washington (1973).
dimensional systems solutions and should be treated as such. If 3 DIN 24 184: TJjpe Tesfing ofHEPA Filters, Beuth, Berlin/KGln (1974).
total systems responsibility is entrusted to a competent and 4 H H Schicht, Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on
experienced, technologically mature supplier, then all the various Contamination Control, p 87, Japan Air Cleaning Association, Tokyo
(1982).
aspects and dimensions can be brought together and integrated
5 J Bruderer, Swiss Pharma, 5, 17 (1984).
into a coherent solution. ’ M Ehrensperger and B Bruggisser, European Semiconductor Design und
If, on the other hand, the problem is torn apart into a number of Production, 6, 17 (1985).

491