Clean Equipment Design

Equipment designed to be used in a cleanroom must be developed precisely to prevent airborne molecular contamination (AMC), and relevant electrostatic properties (ESD). Specific technical requirements apply internationally, such as the air-cleanliness class, the PWP value (Particles per Wafer and Pass), the AMC cleanliness of the air and materials, flow parameters, ESD properties and materials selection.

Clean equipment works on the basis of a permanent supply of clean air and prevention of contamination sources inside the equipment. The air supply, along with a suitably controlled flow and shielding, provide an effective barrier to seal off what tends to be the less clean environment.

Fraunhofer IPA utilizes FLUENT (ANSYS) flow simulation. This software provides enormous potential for simulating complex physical processes. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) already allows for the precise design of cleanroom plant and equipment in the early stages of development. Costly prototypes that are gradually fine-tuned become superfluous. Drawings put together by the designers can be imported directly into the simulation software and re-exported for further use.