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Cleanrooms: sterile heart chambers of high-tech production

MFE Special 2024
Cleanrooms: sterile heart chambers of high-tech production

IMG_20200331_120044.jpgView into the clean room of the SAW COMPONENTS component factory Image: Heiko Weckbrodt

Anyone who has ever visited the heart of a chip factory will know how much effort and expense the production of high-tech products such as processors and other circuits entails for people, machines and finances: the subfab under the actual production floor with all its supply lines, special chemical pipes, exhaust air and overpressure systems and processing systems devour billions for the construction of a modern mega-fab - and later cause considerable running costs during operation.

The chip workers, on the other hand, have to squeeze into full-body overalls with masks and cleanroom shoes shift after shift and have to work for many hours under almost eternal artificial light. However, many of today's technology sectors are absolutely dependent on such particularly sterile locations: not only microelectronics manufacturers, but also sensor technology companies, pharmaceutical and biotech companies and many others.

The industries that rely on cleanrooms include

  • Semiconductor industry: fabs manufacture microchips and other electronic components that turn into extremely expensive rejects due to even the smallest impurities during production.
  • Pharmaceuticals industry: They use cleanrooms to produce sterile drugs, vaccines and medical devices that meet the highest quality and safety standards.
  • Optics industry: Lenses, mirrors and other optical components are manufactured in cleanrooms to minimize distortions and reflections.
  • Medical technology: Implants, pacemakers and other medical devices require an extremely clean production environment.
  • Space industry: Satellites and spacecraft are produced under cleanroom conditions to ensure that they function reliably in space.
  • Watch industry: Some high-precision watch mechanisms are assembled in cleanrooms to ensure a long service life and maximum accuracy.

Cleanrooms are classified according to their cleanliness class, which indicates the maximum number of dust or soot particles, flakes or other foreign particles per cubic meter of air. The lower the number of particles, the higher the cleanliness class. The most common classifications are

  • ISO class 1-9: The international standard ISO 14644-1 defines nine cleanliness classes. Class 1, which is used for the manufacture of high-precision products such as microchips, is the cleanest: In a cleanroom of this class, there must be a maximum of ten particles with a size of 0.1 µm in every cubic meter of air.
  • GMP classes A-D: GMP stands for 'Good Manufacturing Practice'. A European Union guideline defines the four classes from A to D for the pharmaceutical industry, which correspond to the ISO classes.

Trend towards smart and modular cleanrooms

Cleanroom technology is constantly evolving. Recent trends include smart cleanrooms: the use of IoT sensors and 'artificial intelligence' means that the 'weather', production processes and maintenance intervals can now be controlled far more precisely and flexibly than before. Some of these 'intelligent' cleanrooms already react independently to changes.Modular cleanrooms' are also on the rise: Modular systems enable flexible adaptation to changing production requirements and faster commissioning. This concept saves resources and can also stretch or streamline investments depending on market developments. Last but not least, sustainability and energy efficiency are also playing an increasingly important role.

Roboter-Infineon-RR.jpg
Semiconductor manufacturer Infineon has occasionally used such robots to monitor the 'cleanroom weather'. Image: Infineon

Almost every region of the world has its own canon of regulations
In addition, there are new rules and standards, some of which are developed by the industry itself, while others are prescribed by governments or supranational bodies. One example of this is 'Annex 1' to the EU GMP guidelines, which the EU Commission finalized in autumn 2022. It sets new requirements for cleanrooms in the pharmaceutical industry.

10% market growth per year expected
The growing importance of cleanrooms offers considerable economic opportunities for companies that manufacture and operate cleanroom equipment: the increasing demand for high-quality electronic, pharmaceutical and medical products is also driving demand for cleanroom equipment. Companies that develop innovative solutions for cleanroom technology can secure a competitive advantage here. Industry observers assume that the German cleanroom market in particular will grow by 10% per year for the foreseeable future.

www.sawcomponents.de, www.infineon.com

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