Cleanroom monitoring is a vital aspect of industries where maintaining stringent environmental conditions is crucial, including Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry, Battery Cell Manufacturing Industry, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Industry, and Flat Panel Display Manufacturing Industry.
Image Credit: Cubic Sensor and Instrument Co. Ltd
To guarantee the safety and efficacy of products manufactured in cleanroom environments, organizations such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and regulatory bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Europe have set a series standards, which involves continuous surveillance of various parameters like air quality, particulate levels, temperature, humidity, and pressure to ensure cleanroom design in compliance with strict cleanliness standards. For instance, ISO 14644 specifies the classification of air cleanliness in cleanrooms based on particle concentration levels.
Having realized the importance of cleanroom monitoring, Cubic, a manufacturer of gas sensor and gas analyzers, developed a wide range of gas sensing products based on its mature core optical technologies, to provide reliable gas sensing solutions for environmental air quality monitoring, process monitoring & safety monitoring in cleanrooms.
Semiconductor Manufacturing Process Monitoring Solution
In semiconductor manufacturing industry, to minimize yield losses, it is essential for semiconductor fabrication plants (semiconductor fabs) to adopt rigorous contamination control strategies in the cleanrooms. Normally, particulate matter is one of the major sources of micro-contamination in semiconductor manufacturing processes, which needs to be monitored continuously.
In order to help semiconductor fabrication plants (semiconductor fabs) continuously monitor particulate matter to maintain low levels of airborne particles in cleanrooms, Cubic has provided reliable optical particle counters based on Light Scattering technology, OPC-6303 Series and OPC-6510 Series, which realize accurate detection of particles of various sizes in a unit volume of air. With a built-in unique Laser particle counter sensor module, consistent RPM fan, and well-designed ultrasonic flow sensor, OPC-6510 series and OPC-6303 series can provide a stable and high flow rate of 28.3L/min gas sampling rate which enables it compliant to ISO 21501-4 requirement. Cubic online optical particle counter can simultaneously output the particle number of 5 channels of 0.3μm, 0.5μm, 1.0μm, 5.0μm, 10μm in pcs/28.3L or pcs/m³and supports 24/7 operation to ensure stable and continuous particle monitoring. Moreover, Cubic online optical particle counter series could achieve online transmission of monitoring data based on RS485 ModBus and MQTT communication, which can be further integrated into the filtration system to maintain the particle matter pollution in the cleanroom environment within a certain low concentration range.
Furthermore, to realize in time safety warning during the semiconductor industry manufacturing processes, Cubic also designed TDLAS technology-based trace moisture sensor and oxygen sensor, to measure the trace content in ultra-high purity gases with high selectivity, high accuracy and excellent reliability.
Li- Battery Fabrication Contamination Monitoring Solution
In lithium-ion battery manufacturing, particularly in electrode material preparation and cell assembly processes, controlling airborne particulate contamination is crucial to ensure the performance and reliability of battery products.
Regulatory standards such as ISO 14644 establish criteria for classifying air cleanliness in controlled environments. In the context of EV battery manufacturing, attaining an ISO Class 5 or higher is frequently imperative owing to the susceptibility of battery components to contamination.
To help monitor and control contamination during battery fabrication process, Cubic has designed 2.83LPM Particle Counter OPC-6303 Series and 28.3LPM Particle Counter OPC-6510 Series, based on its core light scattering technology.
The remarkable features of Cubic online optical particle counters:
- Output particle number in 5 channels/6 channels (0.3μm, 0.5μm,1.0μm, 2.5μm, 5.0μm, 10μm)
- Built-in high power industrial grade linear laser, accurate identification
- Built-in ultrasonic gas flow sensor, constant and stable flow sampling
- ModBus RS485 and MQTT communication protocols available
- 24/7 online continuous monitoring
Furthermore, for ensuring the safety during Li-battery manufacturing process, it is essential to take effective measures to prevent electrolyte leakage or thermal runaway.
Cubic has designed NMP gas leakage detector Gasboard-2063 and electrolyte leakage detector AM4210. Gasboard-2063 has the characteristics of fast response, high sensitivity, long life, zero-point self-calibration, and maintenance-free. It also meets the requirements of ExdⅡCT3 explosion-proof certification and meets the application needs of NMP concentration leakage monitoring of lithium battery coating machines. Cubic self-developed handheld electrolyte leakage detector AM4210 is designed with a TFT LCD, which can not only detect leakage points, but also quantitatively analyze the leakage concentration in the current environment and present the current concentration data.
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Environmental Monitoring Solution
In pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, controlling airborne particles is essential to ensure the purity and safety of pharmaceutical products.
Cubic 2.83LPM Particle Counter OPC-6303 Series and 28.3LPM Particle Counter OPC-6510 Series can be applied for monitor cleanroom indoor environmental conditions of production areas, and storage facilities, meeting regulatory requirements for airborne particulate levels monitoring and control. By monitoring particle concentrations and size distributions, pharmaceutical manufacturers can implement effective measures to minimize the risk of product contamination and maintain product quality throughout the pharmaceutical manufacturing process.
At the same time, to ensure high-quality pharmaceutical products manufacturing, Cubic also designed TDLAS technology-based trace moisture sensor and oxygen sensor, to measure the trace oxygen and trace moisture in ultra-high purity gases to prevent trace content contamination on pharmaceutical products.
Flat Panel Display Manufacturing Process Monitoring Solution
Flat panel display (FPD) manufacturing involves the production of various types of displays such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, and others, which requires manufacturing process with precision and cleanliness to ensure high-quality products.
Cleanrooms for FPD manufacturing should be designed to minimize the level of particles and also to control the filtered air supply by monitoring temperature, humidity, and pressure levels.
To achieve environmental process monitoring, Cubic has designed 2.83LPM Particle Counter OPC-6303 Series and 28.3LPM Particle Counter OPC-6510 Series, based on its core light scattering technology to monitor the particle levels, and also employed integrated CO2 sensor and controller AM6108B to monitor temperature and humidity in FPD manufacturing cleanrooms.
For more detailed information about Cubic Cleanroom Monitoring Solutions, please visit：https://en.gassensor.com.cn/cleanroommonitoring/index.html