About Semiconductors & Microelectronics

As well as sealed doors, a pressure cascade regime via an airlock arrangement will minimise the effect of door usage. You will need interlocked airlocks if a facility features a rapid roller door. Pressure cascades further reduce infiltration, with critical areas maintained at 65Pa with specially designed shrouds located at exit points to create a curtain of dry air that helps reduce moisture transfer during door opening.

Doors should be fabricated from the same surface finish as the rest of the building envelope for a consistent surface resistivity strategy.

Panel selection in this sector for the cleanroom envelope is essential to ensure that all the points above are considered. Some additional features that also need to be considered are the panels’ surface resistivity.

A cleanroom in this sector is the decision of the panel finish. This finish needs to consider facility cleaning regimes, robustness, cleanliness and often most importantly within Battery, semiconductor and microelectronics industries, surface resistivity.

Static dissipative plastics have a surface resistance of circa 10^6-10^9 ohms/cm and allow electrical charges to dissipate generally within milliseconds. Static dissipative materials allow the charges to flow to the ground more slowly and in a more controlled manner, preventing discharge to or from human contact.

Anti-static materials usually have a surface resistivity of 10^10 to 10^12 ohms/cm and inhibit triboelectric charging (the build-up of an electric charge by rubbing one material with another material). Anti-static plastics suppress initial charges, prevent the build-up of static electricity, and provide a very slow rate of decay of static charge from a hundredth of to several seconds. This can often act as a successful method for controlling building envelope charges in micro-electronic facilities.

Conductive and insulative panels are not appropriate due to the risk from conductive anti-insulative factors of electrostatic discharge (ESD), which can cause lithium to catch fire, or microelectronic components to fry.

The core requires careful consideration due to Electrostatic discharge (ESD) this needs to be carefully managed in a battery dry room as it can cause lithium to catch fire or micro-electronic components to fry. Panels with PIR or PU cores have particularly good insulative properties and cause particular risks in these environments. Instead, Aluminium honeycomb panels such as our Puracore range, with either Anti-Static or static dissipative facings, depending on the activity should be used.

They should also be able to be manipulated to incorporate superior fire protection systems, like gas detection equipment, in-rack sprinkler systems, and heat-seeking water cannons. These would usually be integrated into a walk-on or grid-ceiling system, these grid-ceiling systems also lend themselves to high levels of light and fan filter coverage offering laminar flow from above.

The use of a flush cleanroom system eliminates any trapping points allowing for particulate control, the incorporation of vision panels and doors can also be made flush to avoid dead zones in air flows and trapping points for particulate. There is a need for internal detailing within these environments, as this is crucial in achieving low infiltration rates by creating multiple sealing points. For instance, a vapour-proof barrier underneath flooring can improve air leakage rates, as can floor and ceiling coving sealed with cleanroom sealant.

A low surface spread of flame tested to ASTM E84 / EN13501 (as per our Puracore panels) is essential due to the unique fire hazards in the facilities.
Unidirectional flow is often the best solution for the particulate control needed with microelectronics and semiconductor production. This airflow strategy uses much more air than a non-unidirectional airflow system but because of the directed air movement, it minimises the spread of contamination around the room.