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Experiment NoAIM: - To study about clean room

System Description A clean-room or clean space central air conditioning system, or simply a clean-room system (CRS) or clean space system, has a central plant and water systems to supply hot and chilled water to the AHUs, uses HEPA and ULPA filters with prefilters and water coils in the AHU to remove air contaminants, and conditions the air. The conditioned air is supplied to the conditioned space through ducts, terminals, and air distribution devices in order to provide an indoor environment strictly controlled with the required cleanliness, temperature, relative humidity, airflow pattern, pressurization, and noise. A clean-room system is shown in Fig. and has the following characteristics: Because of the complexity of the system configuration and the higher requirements in the control of indoor environments, a clean-room system is a custom-built central system with AHUs and water- cooling and heating coils to condition the supply air. A clean-room system is required to provide airflow of specific velocity to reduce lateral air contamination. Therefore, a clean-room system is a constant-volume system. A clean-room system can be either a single-zone system or a multizone system. In a multizone clean-room system, the zone reheating coil is used to compensate for the variation in zone sensible load to maintain a nearly constant preset zone temperature. A clean-room system always has a separate makeup air unit (MAU) to condition the outdoor air, and a recirculating air unit (RAU) recirculates the space air, filters it, cools it, and pressurizes the mixture of outdoor and recirculating air. Such an arrangement minimizes the crosscontamination of airstreams as well as consolidates the filtration of the outdoor air. Clean rooms and clean spaces are widely used in semiconductor, pharmaceutical, aerospace, and health care industries and facilities. Airflow The volume flow rate of the cleaned and conditioned air supplied to the clean room depends on the desirable air velocity that must be provided in the working area of the clean room. As discussed in Sec. , the supply volume flow rate , in cfm (L / s), can be calculated from Eq. According to ASHRAE Handbook 1999, HVAC Applications, U.S. Federal Standard 209E does not specify velocity requirements. The 90 fpm (0.45 m / s) figure is still widely used in clean rooms. Current research suggests lower velocity may be possible if the required cleanliness levels can be maintained.

Proper airflow pattern is essential to predict the paths of the airstreams as well as to prevent contaminants from being deposited on critical surfaces in the working area. In clean rooms, there are two types of airflow pattern: unidirectional airflow, as shown in Fig. 30.1a, and nonunidirectional airflow. In a unidirectional airflow pattern, airstreams flow through the working area of the clean room in a single-pass, single direction of parallel airstreams. The unidirectional airflow can be subdivided into vertical unidirectional airflow and horizontal unidirectional airflow. When the ceiling of a clean room is fully covered by HEPA or ULPA filters, the downward airflow produces a unidirectional flow of ultraclean air that covers the working area of the clean room. Baylie and Schultz (1994) reported for clean rooms with ceiling partly covered by HEPA or ULPA filters, a porous membrane that is added beneath the HEPA or ULPA filters forms a small plenum which equalizes the pressure across the face of the ceiling and minimizes the turbulence created by the larger grid required to support the HEPA filters and lighting fixtures. When a membrane ceiling is added and air is returned from the bottom inlets of the sidewall, the downward airflow underneath the membrane ceiling is in the form of unidirectional airflow. For a clean room with a ceiling that is partly covered by HEPA or ULPA filters and without any porous membrane underneath the filters, the downward airflow in the clean room is in the form of nonunidirectional airflow.

Pressurization Clean rooms and clean spaces always maintain a higher pressure than the surrounding less clean space to minimize the infiltration of air contaminants. The following pressure differentials are often used:

Pressure diffferential Between clean rooms or clean space and nonclean space Between clean rooms and less clean rooms

in. WC (Pa)

0.05 (12.5) 0.020.03 (5 7.5)

Pressure control precision is typically between _ 0.01 and _ 0.03 in. WC (_ 2.5 and _ 7.5 Pa). For a door or opening between two clean rooms of different cleanliness requirements, a minimum air velocity in the range of 15 to 50 fpm (0.07 to 0.25 m / s) should be maintained at the door (when it is opened) or the other openings.

Temperature and Relative Humidities

Because staff wear heavy gowns in clean rooms with stringent indoor environmental requirements, a temperature between 66 and 68F (18.9 and 20C) is to be maintained. In class 10,000 or class 100,000 clean rooms with less restrictive garments, 70 to 72F (21.1 to 22.2C) may be satisfactory. A tolerance of _2F (1.1C) is adequate for comfort purposes. In clean rooms, space relative humidity is usually controlled at 45 _ 5 percent.

Fig. Class 10 clean room system Schematic Diagram and Air Conditioning Cycle

CASE STUDY: CLEAN-ROOM SYSTEMS FOR SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT FABRICATION


Indoor Requirements

The fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits requires a highly sophisticated combination of advanced technologies. Clean-room central system with vertical unidirectional airflow is one of these technologies in semiconductor wafer fabrication. It must meet stringent air quality requirements in air cleanliness, air temperature, humidity, airflow pattern, pressurization, lighting, noise, and vibration for the sake of successful manufacturing. Contaminated semiconductors result in inferior products. As discussed in Sec. 4.11, clean-room air cleanliness requirements for semiconductor fabrication include classes 1, 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000. Vertical unidirectional airflow with average air velocities from 60 to 90 fpm (0.3 to 0.45 m / s), typically at 90 fpm (0.45 m / s), is widely used.

Manufacturing an integrated circuit involves photolithography, etching, and diffusion processes. These processes may take place over many hours, even days. A stable temperature is extremely important. Because clean-room production personnel wear smocks that fully cover them, clean-room temperatures are controlled from 68 to 72F (20 to 22.2C) with tolerances of _0.1F (0.056C), _0.2F(0.11C), _0.5F (0.28C), and 1.0F (0.56C). A closer tolerance is often maintained within the manufacturing process itself; e.g., wafer reticle writing by electron beam technology needs _0.1F (0.056C). whereas _1.0F (0.56C) is often used for the open-bay area. In clean rooms, if the relative humidity is too low, static electricity is created and causes defective products. If the relative humidity is too high, some chemicals may expand and may cause equipment failure. For etching and diffusing areas, the humidity should be maintained at 40 to 45 percent with a tolerance of _5 percent, whereas in the photolithography area, a relative humidity of 35 to 40 percent with a tolerance of _2 percent is usually maintained. The manufacture of metal oxide semiconductors requires large quantities of conditioned outdoor

air as makeup air, to replace processing exhaust air and to maintain clean-room pressurization. A clean room is always maintained at a positive pressure to prevent the infiltration of contaminated air from surrounding spaces. For some clean rooms, the process exhaust airflow may be as high as 10 cfm/ft2 (182 m3 /h_m2) of floor area. The average process exhaust airflow for semiconductor fabrication may be between 2 and 3 cfm / ft2 (36 to 54 m3 /h_m2).

Energy Use of Components

In Naughton (1990a, 1990b), the breakdown of energy use in a typical clean-room central system with vertical unidirectional flow is approximately as follows: The chiller and fans each consume 45 percent of the total HVAC&R energy use. Both plant and building pumps use the remaining 10 percent. Because of extremely high space sensible cooling load and very small space latent load, the sensible heat ratio of the space conditioning line SHRs can often be taken as 0.99. The operating cost of HVAC&R is only 5 to 20 percent of the total cost needed to produce an integrated circuit (semiconductor wafer). The air cleanliness, temperature, relative humidity, airflow, and pressurization required for successful fabrication are still extremely important goals of an HVAC&R system design. Because of high utility rates, however, a reduction in the operating cost of the clean-room system also becomes a very influential factor in clean-room design and operation.

System Description Semiconductor clean rooms are of two types: open-bay design or clean tunnel. The clean tunnel consists of narrow modular clean rooms which may be isolated from one another. Open-bay design includes large open-construction clean rooms. A typical clean-room air conditioning system, or simply clean-room system, for a class 10 clean room of the open-bay configuration is shown in Fig. This system consists of the following components:

Recirculating Air Unit (RAU). The function of a recirculating air unit is to recirculate the space air; to filter it, to cool it, to pressurize the mixture of recirculating and conditioned makeup air, and to force the mixture to flow through the ULPA filters and the clean-room working area. An RAU comprises the following components:

A mixing box to mix recirculating and conditioned makeup air A prefilter with a dust spot efficiency of 30 percent A chilled water sensible cooling coil A recirculating fan Makeup air and recirculating air dampers Two sound attenuators, one located immediately before the fan inlet and the other after the fan outlet Usually an axial fan is used as the recirculating fan because of its higher fan total efficiency (between 75 and 82 percent) and its better operating characteristics. An unhoused centrifugal fan, often called a cabinet fan, with a fan total efficiency of 58 to 63 percent is sometimes used because of its lower sound power level. The chilled water entering the sensible cooling coil in the RAU is often at a temperature of 50F (10C).

Makeup Air Unit (MAU). The function of an MAU is to supply outdoor air to the clean room for process exhaust and pressurization, to condition it, and to control the humidity of the clean room by cooling and dehumidifying, or heating and humidifying, the makeup air. The system components in an MAU include the following: An outdoor air damper A prefilter with a MERV 8 (dust spot efficiency of 30 percent) A preheating coil A chilled water cooling coil A makeup air centrifugal fan A HEPA filter of 99.97 percent DOP efficiency A humidifier, most often a steam humidifier MAU shutoff damper Chilled water entering the cooling coil in the MAU for cooling and dehumidifying is at a temperature of 40F (4.4C). It is more energy-efficient to have a separate chiller to provide chilled water for an MAU. ULPA Filters and the Unidirectional Airflow Clean Room. The function of ULPA filters is to

provide ultraclean air for the clean room. The pressurized plenum or ducted ULPA filter modules are often used for an even distribution of unidirectional downward air flow. For class 1, 10, and 100 clean rooms, ULPA filters with a DOP efficiency of 99.9997 percent of 0.12-_m particles and unidirectional airflow are used. For class 1000 through class 100,000, HEPA filters with a DOP efficiency of 99.97 percent of 0.3-_m particles and nonunidirectional airflow may provide satisfactory contamination control. Unidirectional downward airflow produces a uniform air shower of ultraclean air. Internally generated contaminants will not move laterally against the 90 fpm (0.45 m / s) airflow and will be carried away by predictable parallel airstreams. Recirculating air enters either the bottom side return inlets directly or the perforated raised floor panels. It is then returned to the RAU to mix with makeup air again.

Operating Characteristics The following temperature and relative humidity are to be maintained in a class 10 clean room: 30.18 CHAPTER THIRTY For a class 10 clean room with an area of 1000 ft2 (472 m2), a supply volume flow rate of 90,000 cfm (42,470 m2) is required to provide an air velocity of 90 fpm (0.45 m / s) in order to produce a unidirectional flow in this clean room. The outdoor air intake for process exhaust, space pressurization, and occupants is typically 6000 cfm (2830 L / s).

Summer Mode Operation In Mandelbaum (1991), the operating modes of clean rooms of classes 1 through 1000 are divided into summer and winter modes. When the dew-point temperature of the outdoor air To_ is 46F (7.8C) and above, the clean-room system is in summer mode operation. Let us consider a hot summer day. Outdoor air at a summer design temperature of 100F (37.8C) and a wet-bulb temperature of 78F (25.6C) enters the MAU, as shown in Fig. 30.1a and b. It is cooled and dehumidified at the cooling coil to a leaving coil condition of air temperature Tcc _ 46F (7.8C), relative humidity _r _ 99 percent, and dew-point temperature _ 46F (7.8C).

After the conditioned outdoor air absorbs the fan heat of the MAU, the air enters the RAU at a discharge temperature Tdis of 47.5F (8.6C) and a relative humidity of 92 percent. In the RAU, conditioned air from the MAU is mixed with the recirculating air from the clean room at a temperature of 69F (20.6C), a relative humidity of 42.5 percent, and a dew-point temperature of 46F (7.8C). The ratio of volume flow of recirculating air to makeup air is 12:1. The mixture m enters the sensible cooling coil at temperature Tm _ 67F (19.4C) and a dew point of 46F (7.8C). It is then sensibly cooled to a temperature Tsc. If the maximum space sensible cooling load is 563,000 Btu /h (265,680 L / s) and if the density of supply air _s _ 0.078 lb / ft3 (1.248 kg /m3), the temperature of supply air Ts can be calculated as Fig Usually the temperature rise due to fan heat in the RAU is 1F (0.56C). The temperature of the air leaving the sensible cooling coil is then Tsc _ 63.5 1 _ 62.5F (16.9C). Its dew-point temperature is still 46F (7.8C). Because of the short supply duct, large volume flow, and the fact that the surrounding space is conditioned, the duct heat gain is usually ignored. Because the SHRs of the space conditioning line is 0.99, after the air has absorbed the space sensible cooling load and a very small amount of latent load, the space temperature is then maintained at 69F (20.6C). The space relative humidity is 42.5 percent, and the dew point is 46F (7.8C). To cool and dehumidify the makeup air at the cooling coil to a leaving dew-point temperature of 46F (7.8C), the chilled water entering the cooling coil should be provided at a temperature Twe 40F (4.4C) without using glycol for freeze protection. The chilled water leaving the chiller in the plant loop is usually 1F (0.56C) lower, or 39F (3.8C).

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