[labnetwork] Parylene Coater Concerns

[Matthew Moneck]

Dear Colleagues,

Happy Holidays!  I would like to poll this community for some feedback.  We have an SCS Labcoter 2 parylene system in our old cleanroom facility.  That facility will soon shut down, and we are planning to relocate the tool.  Due to the particulate and debris this tool generates, especially during maintenance cycles, we prefer not to move it into our new class 10, class 100 cleanroom facility.  At the same time, we have faculty using the tool for applications where particulate contamination during sample loading is a concern.  They would like to have it in the cleanroom.

It is my understanding that many labs have either moved their parylene systems out of their cleanroom or they have installed the system in a lower class environment (class 10,000 for example).  Our plan to satisfy all parties is move the system to a lab not currently operated as a cleanroom (i.e we are less worried about debris generated from the tool) and to build a relatively inexpensive softwall cleanroom around the tool to mitigate the particulate concerns during sample handling/loading.  We have used these mini environments before for other equipment we could not put in our cleanroom, and they have served us well.  However, there are still concerns from the researchers using the tool.

My questions to this community are as follows:


1.       Where to do you have your parylene system installed (e.g. class 100, 1000, or 10,000 cleanroom or in a standard lab environment)?

2.       Do you have any comments or feedback on the benefits or pitfalls of using a softwall cleanroom for similar applications?

3.       Do you have any other feedback or options we should consider?

As always, we appreciate the input from this group.

Best Regards,

Matt

--
Matthew T. Moneck, Ph.D
Executive Manager, Claire & John Bertucci Nanotechnology Laboratory
Electrical & Computer Engineering | Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Phone:  412-268-5430
ece.cmu.edu<http://www.ece.cmu.edu>
nanofab.ece.cmu.edu<http://www.nanofab.ece.cmu.edu>

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