Issue

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.-Recent independent testing of filter technology developed by Donaldson Company Inc. (www.donaldson.com) offers optimism in the battle against sulfur-dioxide (SO2) contamination in semiconductor manufacturing.

July 11 marks the opening day of the 35th annual SEMICON West conference and exhibition focusing on the technology trends, market drivers, and challenges affecting the semiconductor industry.

WASHINGTON, DC-National Institutes of Health (NIH; www.nih.gov) scientists have recently discovered that prion proteins become toxic when they latch on to the outside of cell membranes, and if a method can be found to break the fatty bond, effective treatments for such prion-induced diseases as human mad cow disease could be forthcoming.

NASHUA, NH-Dr. Hans Schicht, internationally recognized contamination-control expert, will keynote two day-long CleanRooms conferences this fall for the Latin American and Caribbean markets. CleanRooms Brazil will be held November 14 in São Paulo, while CleanRooms Puerto Rico will take place November 17 in San Juan.

ROCKVILLE, Md.-In hopes of assuring safe, contamination-free use of human cells and tissue in medical procedures, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA; ww.fda.gov) has put into effect a series of new rules for “Good Tissue Practice” (GTP)-including the methods, facilities and controls used to manufacture such products as corneas, heart valves, musculoskeletal tissue, and cellular therapies.

News snippets from the world of contamination control.

AUSTIN, TX-With the second quarter of 2005 already underway, research consortium SEMATECH (www.sematech.org) is looking ahead to technical challenges facing the semiconductor industry in 2006. From lithography and various device components to metrology, manufacturing effectiveness, and environment, safety, and health (ES&H), the consortium sees significant contamination-control concerns-particularly with lithography and new materials.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.-What was once simply known as California’s state capital, where most employees worked for the government, Sacramento today is home to academic research and myriad public companies that increasingly implement cleanroom technology.

USP 797 was introduced in January 2004 as an enforceable regulation, and the document was a surprise to many involved in the compounding of sterile preparations. General chapter <797> Pharmaceutical Compounding-Sterile Preparations addresses the compounding of sterile products in any setting, including healthcare institutions, pharmacies, physician practices and other facilities in which sterile preparations are compounded.

The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) is responsible for the origination, publishing and revision of approximately 35 Recommended Practices (RPs) on topics of interest and of value to the contamination-control industry. Several years ago, the need for an RP covering basic cleanroom operation and personnel practices was identified as one of these topics.

The cleanroom industry is difficult to define because in many respects it is an artificial creation around results and not specific products.

The need for stricter contamination-control practices and procedures for the compounding of sterile pharmaceutical preparations has long been a topic of discussion in the pages of CleanRooms. But, as of January 1, 2004, good advice and recommendations have been transformed into the first official and enforceable sterile preparation compounding requirement in the U.S.-the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapter 797.

As an end user, you may not always get what you ask for when you engage a team to design a cleanroom for your facility. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

When manufacturing in an aseptic environment, it is critical to ensure that the various cleanroom consumables, such as wipers, gloves, swabs, tubing, etc.

The complexity of semiconductor device manufacturing processes is increasing as scaling of ICs continues with shrinking feature sizes. With this complexity, contamination control of nanosize particles is increasingly becoming more important during fabrication. The ITRS guidelines in Table 1 show the stringent purity requirements for liquid chemicals to be used in the manufacture of next-generation semiconductors.1

More than 40 years ago, in the early 1960s, the space program began to experience firsthand the effects of molecular contamination. Problems were apparent within the optics-rich vacuum environments well before the first spacecraft was launched.

Cleanrooms can be quite different from one application to the next, but one aspect they all share is the need for adequate hand protection. Within the realm of hand protection, however, products can vary widely-sterility, weight, length, resistance to contaminants, and the materials from which they are made can affect how you choose one hand-protection product over another for your critical environment.

Each month, CleanRooms brings you a collection of the latest product innovations in the contamination-control industry.