Tag Archives: Clean Rooms

APRIL 1, 2009 — ALPHARETTA, GA — Neenah Paper’s Munising LP cleanroom paper is designed specifically for the cleanroom environment.

Unlike ordinary bond paper and many cleanroom papers that spread particulate contamination, Munising LP® is polymer-saturated to reduce free particles and particle releasing tears. It can be laser printed without smudging, written on with ordinary clean room pens, photocopied, sterilized and shredded. Munising LP® features high opacity, good heat stability and chemical and moisture resistance. It requires no special procedures for printing other than those needed to keep the paper free from contamination and it is easily shredded using conventional shredding equipment.

Munising LP is available in 30# white and blue sized 8.5″ x 11″ and 11″ x 17″; 22.5# white and blue sized 8.5″ x 11″ and 11″ x 17″ and 22.5# colors

MARCH 20, 2009 — ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — Find out what you need to know about pending revisions to the ISO 14644-1 and ISO 14644-2 Cleanroom Standards, including modifications to the airborne particulate classification test method and sampling requirements, at ESTECH 2009, the 55th Annual Technical Meeting and Exposition of IEST.

ISO 14644 tutorials will be taught by Robert Mielke, Secretary for ISO Technical Committee 209, Cleanrooms and associated controlled environments, and U.S. expert to the ISO/TC 209 team that is revising the ISO 14644-1 and ISO 14644-2 Standards.

Knowledge of the ISO 14644-1 and 14644-2 Standards has become an operational and contractual necessity in today’s cleanroom environments. Mielke’s expert, first-hand approach provides an in-depth understanding of the ISO 14644 series, with an emphasis on testing cleanroom classification requirements and performance.

These two tutorials are part of a three-part ISO certificate program that includes a full-day class on Testing Cleanroom Performance Using ISO 14644-3, taught by Robert Mielke and Daniel Dennison. The class will explore the practical application of the ISO 14644 series that a certification contractor would use to certify a clean space and will include a group cleanroom evaluation workshop.

ESTECH 2009 will take place during a new Monday-Thursday format on May 4-7, 2009, at the Chicago Marriott Schaumburg in Schaumburg, IL. Along with the ISO Series certificate program, a certificate program on Filtration; tutorial with information on the latest revisions to IEST-STD-CC1246; seminar on the latest nanotechnology standards development; USP-797 seminar; and a special seminar featuring pioneers in the contamination control industry will be featured at ESTECH 2009. To view the advance program, visit http://iest.org/files/public/ES09_advanceprogram.pdf.

To contact IEST with any questions, please e-mail [email protected] or call (847) 981-0100.

Visit www.iest.org

MARCH 19, 2009 — WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 554, the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2009, by voice vote. The bill is intended to strengthen and provide transparency in federal research efforts to understand the potential environmental, health, and safety risks of nanotechnology. It is identical to H.R. 5940, which passed the House in the 110th Congress.

“Nanotechnology is already in our cell phones, cosmetics, paints, and refrigerators,” said House Committee on Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) in February. “It will soon help to protect the lives of our police officers and military servicemen, and is showing promise in the treatment of cancer and in promoting wound healing. There is no doubt that the potential of this technology is vast. The bill…will foster commercialization while ensuring public health and safety, and build upon a successful interagency effort in nanotechnology.”

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), supports cooperative research efforts across a spectrum of disciplines. It has established a network of national facilities supporting nanoscale research and development. H.R. 554 requires that the NNI agencies develop a plan for the environmental and safety research component of the program that includes explicit near-term and long-term goals, specifies the funding required to reach those goals, identifies the role of each participating agency, and includes a roadmap for implementation.

The bill also assigns responsibility to a senior official at the Office of Science and Technology Policy to oversee this planning and implementation process and to ensure the agencies allocate the resources necessary to carry it out.

“A well-designed, adequately-funded, and effectively-executed research program in this area is the essential first step to ensure that sound science guides the formulation of regulatory rules and requirements,” stated Gordon. “It will reduce the current uncertainty that inhibits commercial development of nanotechnology and will provide a sound basis for future rulemaking.”

H.R. 554 also includes provisions aimed at capturing the economic benefits of nanotechnology. In 2007, $60 billion in nano-enabled products were sold; it is predicted that the number will rise to $2.6 trillion by 2014. To encourage commercialization in the U.S., the bill strengthens public-private partnerships by encouraging the creation of industry liaison groups to foster technology transfer and to help guide the NNI research agenda. The bill also promotes the use of nanotechnology research facilities to assist companies in the development of prototypes.

The bill also authorizes large-scale, focused, multi-agency research and development initiatives in areas of national need. Efforts could be organized around developing a replacement for the silicon-based transistor or developing new nanotechnology-based devices for harvesting solar energy.

Lastly, the legislation addresses future STEM workforce needs by supporting the development of undergraduate courses in nanotechnology fields and by creating education partnerships between nanotechnology companies and secondary schools.

Visit the Committee’s web site: science.house.gov/default.aspx

MARCH 19, 2009 — SAN JOSE, CA — According to the World Fab Forecast report recently released by SEMI, 2009 spending on worldwide fabs equipping front-end facilities is expected to hit the lowest levels since 1994.

All regions are showing double-digit declines in construction spending in 2009, with the possible exception of the Americas. The Americas have experienced some of the lowest spending levels in the past few years, but are expected to see growth driven by Intel and AMD.

Worldwide, eight facilities are expected to commence operations in 2009, and in 2010, a total of about 18 additional facilities may begin operations.

Since the global economic downturn, the hardest hit area in semiconductor manufacturing has been the memory industry, which has experienced bankruptcies and consolidations. A prime example of this is Qimonda, which filed for insolvency in January 2009, and subsequently closed down its manufacturing in the US, and dramatically cut capacity by 75 percent in its Front End fab in Dresden for the first quarter of 2009.

New growth will take time in the memory segment, which has dominated spending levels and capacity growth in the industry since 2001; however, plans by Intel and AMD are continuing investments in advanced technology.

Recently, both companies have announced multi-billion dollar plans for upgrades and capacity expansion both in the U.S. and internationally. These investments also represent the largest investment in the U.S. since 2007, when Intel launched Fab 32 and IM Flash established the Lehi and Manassas fabs.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast provides high level summaries and graphs; in-depth analysis of capital expenditure, capacity, technology and products, down to the detail of each fab; and forecasts for the next 18 months.

Visit www.semi.org/fabs for additional information on these reports.

MARCH 20, 2009 — KRIFTEL, GERMANY — JohnsonDiversey Pharma, the pharmaceutical division of JohnsonDiversey, a global hygiene product and solution company, and basan, a cleanroom company, have announced a European partnership for the sale and distribution of JohnsonDiversey’s range of ClearKlens cleanroom disinfectants.

The ClearKlens range has been developed to simplify cleanroom disinfection, removing unnecessary complexity in disinfectant selection by offering five product formulations in multiple pack sizes to suit each facility.

“The partnership will bring choice to the sterile disinfectant market. Like JohnsonDiversey, basan focuses on building relationships with customers based on a strong service offering and excellent reputation; therefore we are ideally suited to work together and are looking forward to bringing the ClearKlens range to new countries in Europe,” says Malcolm Farnan, sector director – Pharma, JohnsonDiversey.

“In JohnsonDiversey we found a partner that will enable our customers to reach the level of cleanliness required by their production facilities, and are happy to include their powerful product range into our product portfolio,” says Rowin Vos, director of business development at basan. “Futhermore, the partnership allows us to serve our customers on a European-wide basis.”

Basan supplies a complete range of cleanroom technology and products.

Visit www.basan.com
www.johnsondiversey.com
www.clearklens.com

March 15, 2009 — CHASKA, MN — Entegris, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTG) has introduced a new solution for accurately measuring and controlling volatile organic compounds that cause contamination in advanced semiconductor lithography processes. If left uncontrolled, these low molecular weight, silicon-containing, organic compounds (such as TMS) have been shown to impact 248 nm and 193 nm exposure tools, and can lead to permanent damage of sensitive and costly optical components.

Entegris is is one of a few companies worldwide with analytical services capabilities to accurately sample and analyze these contaminants in the fab environment. Manufacturers of scanner tools have already mandated the measurement of high molecular weight contaminants, but until now, there has been no means for fabs to reliably identify and quantify the presence of the low molecular weight variety. Together with this lab’s ISO 17025 accredited analytical services, Entegris’ filtration and purification products provide solutions that identify, measure, and then control airborne molecular contamination.

“We are now able to accurately and reliably see and control low molecular weight silicon contamination as well as some high molecular weight compounds such as HMDSO and D3, which have been difficult to measure” said J

MARCH 11, 2009 — IC Insights reports there are eight U.S. companies in the top-20 semiconductor ranking (including three fabless semiconductor suppliers), six Japanese, three European, two South Korean, and one Taiwanese company (IC foundry supplier TSMC) in the ranking. It required at least $3.6 billion in 2008 sales to make the top 20 ranking.

Although the top five ranked companies remained the same, and most of the other top 20 suppliers moved up or down only one or two spots in the ranking, there were a few companies that displayed significant changes in their 2008 rank as compared to their 2007
positions.

Major changes in the 2008 ranking include: The second largest fabless supplier, Broadcom, jumped six positions and is now the 17th largest semiconductor supplier in the world; After a disastrous 33% decline in IC sales last year, DRAM and flash memory supplier Hynix dropped from 6th in 2007 to 10th in 2008. The company’s current annual sales run rate is less than $4.0 billion; Cell phone IC supplier Qualcomm used a 15% year-over-year growth rate to jump five spots and
rank as the 8th largest semiconductor supplier in 2008; DRAM-supplier Qimonda’s nightmare worsened in 2008 as the company filed for insolvency and dropped 11 positions from being ranked 18th overall in 2007 to 29th in 2008; With a 12% decline in 2008/2007 sales, NXP fell five spots to 15th from 10th in 2007.

Although its sales declined a relatively mild 7% in 2008, Japanese DRAM supplier Elpida dropped out of the top 20 ranking.

The total 2008/2007 sales of the top 20 semiconductor suppliers displayed a 3% decline, matching the total worldwide semiconductor market decline in 2008. Among the top 20 semiconductor suppliers, there were only nine companies that registered an increase in sales in 2008.

For more information, contact Bill McClean, President, IC Insights, Inc. Phone: +1-480-348-1133, Email: [email protected]