Building Trust in a Shared Cleanroom: Airtho and Vaisala at UNH’s Olson Center
In advanced manufacturing and research, confidence in environmental conditions is foundational to innovation. From assembling satellite components and packaging sensitive electronics to semiconductor fabrication and battery development, precise control and trusted measurement of temperature and humidity directly influence quality and reliability.
At the University of New Hampshire’s John Olson Center for Advanced Manufacturing, this understanding shaped the creation of a publicly accessible cleanroom designed to serve students, researchers, and industry partners alike. Designed, built, and donated by Airtho in collaboration with UNH, the ISO 7 cleanroom expands access to professional-grade manufacturing environments and supports hands-on learning, applied research, and industry collaboration.
Because the cleanroom enables a diverse, multi-user community, environmental conditions must be more than controlled — they must be consistently measured, documented, and trusted by every user. Working closely with UNH, Airtho designed and delivered the cleanroom with these requirements in mind, integrating Vaisala measurement technology to ensure the accuracy, long-term stability, and data reliability needed for shared use.
The result is a cleanroom that delivers confidence, enriching education and enabling real-world manufacturing experiences in a space where conditions are visible and verifiable.
The Challenge: Building Trust in a Multi-User Cleanroom
The Airtho cleanroom at the Olson Center supports a broad spectrum of users, from students and academic researchers to industry partners developing commercial technologies. Unlike single-tenant industrial cleanrooms or limited-access academic labs, this professional-grade facility was intentionally designed to be shared and publicly accessible. That distinction introduced a critical requirement: every user must be able to trust the environmental conditions that govern the quality their specific work.
In a multi-user cleanroom, maintaining temperature and humidity setpoints is key, but that is only the starting point. Users must also be able to access retrospective data demonstrating that environmental conditions remained within specification during the precise window of their activity. A company validating a new packaging process, for example, may need to demonstrate that humidity never exceeded a defined threshold. A research team preparing a publication or grant report may need time-stamped records confirming stable conditions during critical experiments.
For research validation, product development, and quality assurance, real-time displays alone are not enough. Verifiable, traceable historical data is essential.
These requirements placed high demands on the cleanroom’s measurement systems. They needed to deliver high accuracy and long-term stability, ensure reliable calibration, and provide data users could confidently reference for documentation and reporting. At the same time, the system had to remain intuitive and accessible, supporting daily use by students and meeting the expectations of industry professionals.
The Solution: Measurement-Led Design with Vaisala and Airtho
Airtho designed a cleanroom capable of supporting diverse use cases while maintaining consistency and transparency. From the earliest design stages, Airtho selected Vaisala as its standard measurement partner based on a proven track record across a wide range of cleanroom environments, from moderate laboratory spaces to some of the driest cleanrooms in North America.
At the core of the solution are Vaisala Indigo transmitters, which serve as the central measurement platform for the cleanroom. Indigo is a modular system designed to connect multiple smart probes, deliver real-time measurement data, and support long-term data collection, while allowing capabilities to be expanded or reconfigured as requirements evolve.
Connected to the Indigo transmitters are Vaisala DMP dew point, humidity and temperature probes. Engineered for demanding industrial and cleanroom applications, these probes provide accurate measurement of moisture-related parameters with excellent long-term stability. Minimal sensor drift ensures that historical data remains reliable and suitable for verification and reporting.
Multiple DMP probes are deployed across two connected cleanroom spaces to map environmental conditions and confirm uniformity throughout the facility. This distributed, modular approach ensures localized variations are measured and documented, a critical consideration in a shared environment where different users may occupy different zones.
The flexible measurement architecture mirrors Airtho’s modular cleanroom design, enabling the facility to accommodate new users, additional monitoring points, or expanded capabilities without disrupting existing operations.
“Modularity is a core part of our philosophy, and partnering with a measurement platform that’s just as modular completes that package. This, as well as accuracy, calibration stability, and trust in the data are why we standardize on Vaisala across all of our projects,” said Airtho Founder and President, Brandon Bogart.
Results: Confidence Through Transparency and Traceability
Since commissioning the cleanroom, Vaisala’s measurement solution has become central to daily operations at the Olson Center. Dew point, temperature and relative humidity data are continuously logged, creating a transparent environmental record that can be reviewed long after a project is complete.
For industry partners, this traceability provides assurance that environmental requirements were met during sensitive processes. When they validate a new process or prepare for audits, they can reference objective, time-stamped measurement records instead of relying on assumptions or incomplete notes.
For students and researchers, it offers practical insight into how measurement underpins quality, validation, and process control. They see not only setpoints on a display, but also how historical trends, alarms, and documented conditions support credible results and reproducible work.
The long-term stability of the DMP probes reduces the need for frequent calibration or maintenance and minimizes operational disruption. Facility managers can rely on consistent performance, while users can trust that historical data accurately reflects real conditions over time.
“From day one, all of the cleanrooms we’ve built have included Vaisala as our measurement partner. Accurate measurement is not a feature — it is the foundation of trust. When questions arise about process outcomes, stakeholders can reference objective, time-stamped measurement records rather than relying on assumptions,” continued Bogart.
Enabling Education, Collaboration, and Future Growth
Beyond supporting advanced manufacturing, the Airtho cleanroom functions as a learning and demonstration platform. Students gain hands-on experience working in a professional cleanroom environment while learning how precise environmental measurement influences process reliability and product quality.
Industry partners benefit from the same rigor. By operating in a facility where environmental conditions are measured, documented, and verifiable, companies can confidently use the space for development, testing, and small-scale production.
Unlike many proprietary facilities, the Airtho cleanroom is designed to be open and welcoming, allowing visitors to observe operations and environmental monitoring in real time.
According to Bogart, “It’s rare to have a facility that’s open and welcoming where you can actually show how a cleanroom and its measurement systems work in real life. This cleanroom is a big step forward for the university and for the companies and students it supports, and Vaisala makes that possible with measurement they can trust.”
Looking ahead, the measurement infrastructure is designed to evolve alongside the facility and its users. Airtho plans to introduce Vaisala DMP1 dew point and temperature probes, extending measurement capability to extremely low dew point levels while offering faster response times and excellent stability. This will support even more demanding applications and future industry partnerships. Future integration also includes Vaisala Jade Smart Cloud, which will provide remote access to real-time and historical data, trend visualization, alerts, and advanced reporting.
By standardizing on Vaisala’s Indigo platform, DMP probes, and future cloud capabilities, UNH and Airtho have ensured that accuracy, traceability, and confidence remain central as the cleanroom continues to expand applications. The result is a scalable model for shared, measurement-led cleanroom access that can be replicated across other institutions and regions.