Predicting air flow patterns and particle contamination in clean rooms

Particle contamination control in microelectronic, pharmaceutical and other manufacturing environments is critical for the product. Control of submicron-sized particles is becoming increasingly important, especially in microelectronics manufacturing operations due to the continuing reduction in feature size. Numerical flow and particle transport modeling can be used to facilitate the design and operation of clean environments. Comparisons between experimental data from an operating clean room and theoretical predictions indicate that the model is sufficiently accurate to predict the main features of the flow and particle transport for various configurations and operating conditions.