Same cleanroom, different place
09/01/2002
Mykrolis expansion into China expedited with standardized cleanroom plan
by Mark A. DeSorbo
If it works, why change it? That is a long-standing methodology that Mykrolis Corp. (Billerica, MA), a manufacturer of liquid and gas delivery systems and other components used in chip making, uses every time it builds a cleanroom.
The company already has support centers throughout the world, so at a time when all eyes are on China, the same plan that established the company's global presence was once again deployed for a facility in Shanghai.
"We are trying to standardize our operations," says Martin Gibson, director of worldwide service. "This facility is almost identical in size and in construction specs and materials as the facilities in Singapore, Asia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the four in Europe."
Scheduled to open this month, the facility is located in Zhang Jiang Technical Park in Pudong, Shanghai. Along with sales offices, a customer service center, a pre-wetting liquid filter station, the 5,500-square foot facility will include a 500-square-foot ISO Class 5 cleanroom, where mass flow controllers, manufactured at the Mykrolis facility in Allen, TX, will be serviced and calibrated.
"We are actually one of many occupants in the building," Gibson says. "It will house many industries, all diverse applications, but I believe we are the only company with a cleanroom."
Quest Technology (Singapore), which built the Mykrolis facility in Singapore, broke ground on the project in early August.
"We started planning the technical details of the project in May and June, and we resolved any potential issues," says Gibson.
One particular issue was how to vent the cleanroom effectively as well as aesthetically. Gases used in the cleanroom to test mass flow controllers needed to be vented out and away from the facility. Moreover, the ventilation path could not disrupt the façade of the building.
Mykrolis and Quest produced a plan for the fire department to exhaust gasses with a hidden duct system through ceilings and floors. "What we did was exhaust upwards with a draw fan at low pressure so the exhaust dissipates into the atmosphere," Gibson says. "When there are occupants above and below you, it also had to be aesthetically pleasing. It was a hurdle to jump over."
At the time of this report, the project was on schedule and Gibson thought it may be completed "a week or two early."
"The reason the construction schedule is only eight weeks is because we are not reinventing the wheel," he adds. "Our cleanrooms serve as very reliable models, and by standardizing, we are able to ramp our expansion quickly."
Like most of the environments where Mykrolis mass flow controllers are serviced and calibrated, the cleanrooms are outfitted with air handlers, and other ventilation components manufactured by York International (Norman, OK).
"We try to change equipment as little as possible, and we get good support from them (York)," Gibson says.
The positively-pressurized cleanroom is maintained at a temperature of 68 degrees Farenheit,
"We've always used some fresh air because it is a lot better for the cleanroom environment and it makes the humidifiers work less and more efficiently," Gibson adds.
Lighting levels in the cleanroom are maintained at 600 Lux, meaning the environment is easy on the eyes even with all the reflective surfaces.
Surfaces include a raised floor made of 40-mm conductive aluminum raised panels that are raised 300 mm above the cement base. "That serves as the return chase and that is also where gas delivery and utility lines are routed so that all of the cleanroom utilities come up though the floor," Gibson says, adding that all of the stainless steel gas piping complies with the Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI; San Jose, CA) 316 L standard.
"As a result, we do not have any issues with particles in the gas piping," he says.
Cleanroom walls are constructed from an aluminum honeycomb modular partition system, and personnel don full bunnysuits with facemasks and protective glasses, which is standard ISO Class 5 attire.
The new facility, Gibson says, allowed Mykrolis to quickly expand its network as well as take advantage of the promise China holds for a company with diverse capabilities.
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