State-of-the-art cleanroom

At Vaisala, we research, develop and manufacture our sensors in our own cleanroom. Own in-house cleanroom facility and sensor factory are our core capabilities. We also have our own polymer laboratory where we manufacture polymers for our sensors.

Cleanroom is an area where air quality, temperature and humidity are controlled to ensure that sensitive equipment is protected from any possible contamination. 

The air in the room is continuously filtered using HEPA filters to remove any dust particles or other impurities which could damage any highly sensitive materials being produced or worked with. The air in the room is circulated 100 times/hour, and even 400 times/hour in the Litography area.  

Cleanroom is a nearly particle-free environment with no more than 1,000 particles larger than 0.5 microns in any given cubic foot of air. In the Lithography area, there are no more than 100 part larger than 0.5 microns in cubic foot of air. Everyone working in the cleanroom must wear special protective clothing to ensure that no fibers, hair or skin are added to the room's atmosphere.

Sensor wafers spend up to three months in the cleanroom, and during this time they undergo more than 100 statistical process control measurements. After every production step, the sensor-wafers are carefully checked for example by a microscope inside the clean room before further processing. After that they are taken out to the testing area where they are tested in the same conditions the sensors face in the real use. 

Vaisala’s first cleanroom was built in 1980. The current 500m2 cleanroom has been in operation since 2004.

Vaisala cleanroom specifications:

Area 500 m2
Humidity 40 %RH
Humidity in dry room 15 %RH
Temperature 22 °C

Air purity (particle count) is in accordance with the ISO 5 and ISO 6 standards:

ISO 5 (Litography area) <100 over 0,5µm particles / ft3 of air
  Air is circulated 400 times/hr
ISO 6 (Other process areas) <1,000 over 0,5µm particles / ft3 of air
  Air is circulated 100 times/hr


 

Watch the video

Virtual visit to Vaisala cleanroom