What is a cleanroom?

A cleanroom is a space that provides a highly clean environment for specific processes or experiments by strictly controlling parameters such as air cleanliness, temperature, humidity, and pressure. Its importance lies in the fact that the manufacturing and research and development processes of many high-tech products and scientific research achievements have extremely high requirements for environmental conditions. Once tiny dust, bacteria, or other pollutants invade, it may lead to a decrease in product performance, experimental failure, and even catastrophic effects on the entire production process.

1. Design and application of cleanrooms

The design of a cleanroom is a complex and intricate process that requires comprehensive consideration of multiple factors. Firstly, the cleanliness level of the cleanroom must be determined based on specific application scenarios and requirements. Different industries and products have varying requirements for cleanliness, with some requiring ISO level 1 or even higher, while others may only require ISO level 7 or lower.

In terms of application fields, cleanrooms are widely used in multiple industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, biomedicine, aerospace, optical instruments, etc. In semiconductor manufacturing, clean rooms provide necessary environmental protection for wafer production; In the field of biomedicine, clean rooms are important places for drug research and development, production, and testing; In the fields of aerospace and optical instruments, clean rooms ensure the manufacturing quality of precision components and optical elements.

As an important environmental control facility in technology research and manufacturing, clean rooms mainly include the following components:

2. Structure of cleanroom

The structure mainly includes walls, ceilings, floors, doors and windows, and other parts.

(1) Wall and ceiling

• Material selection: Generally, decoration materials that meet the requirements such as stainless steel plates, painted steel plates, color steel plates, tempered glass, etc. are used. These materials have the characteristics of flat and smooth surface, wear resistance, impact resistance, low static electricity generation, good thermal insulation, good sound absorption performance, low dust adsorption, and easy cleaning.
• Design requirement: The junction between the wall and the ceiling should be treated with a circular arc to reduce dust accumulation. At the same time, all gaps (such as splicing joints, wire holes, piping through walls, etc.) must be sealed to ensure airtightness.

(2) Ground

• Material selection: Generally, wear-resistant, impact resistant, fire-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials such as epoxy resin and PVC are used. These materials have the characteristics of seamless construction, few joints, easy cleaning, slip resistance, low dust generation, low dust adsorption, and no release of harmful gases.
• Design requirements: The ground should be flat, smooth, easy to clean and maintain.

(3) Doors and windows

• Material selection: Generally, anti-corrosion, fireproof, and easy to clean materials such as aluminum alloy are used.
• Design requirements: Doors and windows must have good sealing to prevent external pollutants from entering the clean room. At the same time, to meet the requirements of airtightness, non openable observation windows or transmission windows can be set up.

(4) The HVAC system

It is a key component of clean room environmental control, mainly including the refrigeration system and ventilation and air conditioning system.

(5) Refrigeration system

• Composition: Composed of a chiller unit, water pump, cold water pipeline, etc.
• Function: Provide a stable cold source for the clean room, ensuring that the indoor temperature is within the set range.
• Ventilation and air conditioning system:
• Composition: Composed of air conditioning combination cabinet, air duct, high-efficiency air supply outlet, ozone generator, etc.
• Function: Filter the air through primary, medium, high-efficiency, or ultra high efficiency filters to remove dust particles and other pollutants from the air. At the same time, combined with humidification, heating, air ducts and other equipment, the indoor temperature, humidity and airflow distribution are adjusted to ensure that the clean indoor environment meets the process requirements.

(6) Electrical system

The electrical system is an important guarantee for the normal operation of clean rooms, mainly including lighting, power distribution, weak current systems (such as telephone, network, and monitoring), and fire alarm systems.

(7) Lighting

• Lamp selection: Generally, fluorescent lamps, LED lamps, and other lamps with high light efficiency, long lifespan, and soft lighting are used. At the same time, considering air tightness and ease of cleaning, lighting fixtures are generally installed in a ceiling mounted or embedded manner.
• Design requirement: The lighting system must meet the lighting requirements of the cleanroom while avoiding glare and shadows.

(8) Power distribution

• Composition: including power distribution equipment such as sockets and switches.
• Design requirements: The power distribution system must meet the electrical needs of various equipment in the clean room while ensuring electrical safety.

(9) Weak current system

• Composition: including telephone, network, monitoring and other equipment.
• Function: Provide communication, network, and data transmission services for cleanrooms, while achieving remote monitoring and management.

(10) Fire alarm system

• Composition: including smoke detectors, manual alarm buttons, sound and light alarms, and other equipment.
• Function: In emergency situations such as fires, promptly issue alarm signals to ensure safe evacuation of personnel and firefighting.

(11) Pipeline system

The pipeline system is a channel for transporting various fluids in a clean room, mainly including domestic water supply pipes, drainage pipes, pure water pipes, compressed air pipes, nitrogen pipes, steam pipes, etc. These pipeline systems need to be designed and installed according to process requirements to ensure the safety and reliability of fluid transportation.