Larger facilities often require just a few “critical clean” areas, making laminar flow workstations an appropriate solution. It’s often more cost-effective to construct a cleanroom at a lower cleanliness class and supplement it with laminar flow workstations than it is to create a higher-class cleanroom. Here is a representative sampling of laminar flow products and services.
Compiled by Carrie Meadows
Trace contaminant testing for workstations and controlled environments
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Controlled environments are critical for sensitive processes and can include particle and molecular filters for added protection when needed. To keep within spec over time, tests of contamination levels are required for both particles and molecular contaminants. Balazs offers comprehensive services for testing both AMC and SMC on surfaces or substrates in laminar flow workstations, hoods, minienvironments, gloveboxes, purge boxes, tracks, steppers, equipment, and other controlled environments. Trace contamination is analyzed to limits specified for the semiconductor industry in the ITRS. Detection limits down to 10 ppt are available for air sampling. Surface detection limits using ion chromatography, GC-MS, ICP-MS, and other methods range from submonolayer to a millionth of a monolayer. Results can be reported in atoms/cm2, ng/cm2, or other appropriate units. Individual ions, metals, dopants, and organics are identified and quantified. Particles can also contaminate substrates in hoods due to process steps and are identified using SEM-EDX down to 0.1