The intimate and intermediate clean areas for clean processes may use one or more methods of contamination isolation scenarios. The use of large clean rooms to achieve the high degree of cleanliness required for some types of fabrication has not been successful. The use of bi-level or tri-level contamination control has been the most effective method.
Most commercially available vertical and horizontal laminar airflow systems are limited to less than 110 feet per minute velocities. With automated process motions of over 1600 feet per minute, and horizontal airflows do not effectively isolate the intimate processs and products. Localized focused airflow can jprovide excelleent localized isolation and is an excellent control of both chemical and particle contamination in a well designed work cell or processsing line.
LOCALIZED PROCESS CONTROL (LPC) utilizes proprietary designed air filtration equipment and airflow control technology to create a localized clean airfoil or barrier system around product and processes in contamination critical zones, thereby reducing contamination risks at a fraction of the cost of conventional cleanrooms or cleanroom upgrades. LPC has been used in Class 7 (10,000) or Class 8 (100,000) cleanrooms and even non-traditional clean areas or uncontrolled areas to create localized clean process zones to Class 5 (100) or cleaner, depending on the application.
LPC is not a single concept or configuration. There are over 50 different configurations. LPC is cost and cleanliness effective if properly engineered and implemented. Initial cost savings of 40% to 60% have been realized for some high technology programs, and sustained savings on an annual basis.
MC2 has been at the forefront and a leader in developing Localized Process Control, and has presently over 50 different configurations in operation. LPC is cost and cleanliness effective if properly engineered and implemented, and has been used successfully for ultra clean fabrication for products with critical particle size sensitivities to 0.10 microns. Initial cost savings of 40% to 55% have been realized for some programs.
