Saturday, July 11, 2009

Cleanroom --- Actually Clean...-:)

Hi,
Last few days have not been so kind to me. The toothache has made sure I do not eat ice creams or drink cold beverages etc. Even cold water is like a trip to hell. So I warm my water a little bit and then use a straw to drink, one person thinks I am PSYCHOPATH (judging me without knowing the actual case, which we do all the time -☺). Jokes apart I am at Cornell theses days and spending more than half of my day in clean room. Yes a cleanroom, now the question is what is a clean room.


INSIDE VIEW OF CORNELL CLEANROOM

There is a special environment required for nano/micro devices, like controlled amount of particles in air, controlled humidity and temperature etc. In industry this place is called Cleanroom. Now the question why do we need a cleanroom?? Making these devices demands that the people who make them are as clean as the environment in which they work. This is because the device-itself about the size of a dime. The tiniest speck of dust to a chip would be like a Godzilla-sized footprint to us, and it could ruin everything.

Cleanrooms are 10,000 times cleaner than a hospital operating room. So you can imagine the stringent control environment. It takes an incredible amount of technology to achieve and maintain such cleanliness. Huge air filtration systems completely change the air in cleanrooms about 10 times per minute, reducing the chance that there are airborne particles that might harm the chips. ME GOWNED UP

Keeping the environment clean, however, is only half of the story. What about the people who work in the cleanrooms? For this we have special uniforms called "bunny suits" to protect the chips and fabricated devices from human particles such as skin flakes or hairs. A bunny suit is made from a unique non-lint, anti-static fabric and is worn over street clothes. Also if you have facial hair you need to cover that up with lint free masks. In cleanrooms at IBM and Intel you also need to wear a spl mask that filters the air you breath out. Long hours in clean room for many years can lead to a weak immune system, as all the time you are in a very controlled environment. I hope it does not happen to me, as long as I doing my YOGA regularly regular -:).

ENjoy...
..am

3 comments: