Clean room standards and Clean air (LAF) benches

Responsible: Anders Liljeborg

Laminar flow bench without exhaust
Laminar flow bench in yellow lab
Air filter modules (in yellow lab)

ScanLaf Fortuna brochure

Laminar flow benches with partial exhaust

The cleanest areas in the lab are within the laminar flow benches. The air is pushed through a filter (HEPA) in the ceiling of the bench, and flowing down onto the work area, keeping it free from particles.

There are two HEPA filters in the top of the cabinet, one main filter and one exhaust filter. 70% of the air volume is recirculated, 30% is exhausted.
Blue: Clean air
Red: Contaminated air
(-) Negative pressure
(+) Positive pressure

The outside air is sucked in at the front grille of the cabinet forming a barrier against the outer particles. Always avoid placing samples, wipes etc. on the front grille, they will be contaminated with particles and the air-barrier will be disturbed.

Do not block the air-barrier at the front grille by placing wipes or samples on it. Your samples will be contaminated with particles. The wipe will effectively destroy the barrier, causing more particles to enter the inner work area of the bench.

 

The buttons of the front panel have the following functions (from left to right):

  1. Key-switch, ON/OFF, should always be ON
  2. (Red) Warning that air flow is not correct, silenced by pressing button
  3. (Red) Warning indicator that front panel is open
  4. (Yellow) UV-light ON/OFF, not applicable in these benches.
  5. (Yellow) Full/half speed switch. Half speed when illuminated
  6. (Blue) Bench illumination ON/OFF
  7. (Green) Ventilation ON/OFF

Try always to run the bench at half speed on ventilation, i.e. right yellow light on.

Laminar flow benches without exhaust

There are also several laminar flow benches with filtered air that does not provide any exhaust.     ScanLaf brochure

Do not use these benches for chemicals giving of fumes!

 

The buttons of the front panel have the following functions (from left to right):

  1. (Red) Warning that air flow is not correct, silenced by pressing button
  2. (Yellow) UV-light ON/OFF, not applicable in these benches.
  3. (Yellow) Full/half speed switch. Half speed when illuminated
  4. (Blue) Bench illumination ON/OFF
  5. (Green) Ventilation ON/OFF

Laminar air bench in yellow lab

In the yellow lab for optical lithography there is a clean air bench of a different make. It has a manually movable front panel. Here is a description of that bench.

Air filter modules

There are air filter modules to create a localized area of clean air. There are two of these, one above the contact mask aligner and one above the projection mask camera.


The air flow, intake at the sides, clean air out at the bottom.

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