[labnetwork] Cleanroom humidity

[Nathan Fitzpatrick]

Hi Alex,

Our main cleanroom is set to 21C +/- 1C in most areas and +/- 0.1C in Lithography.  Humidity is 45 +/- 3% R.H.

Almost every process in the lab is affected by a failure to control either temperature or humidity.  Temperature stability is crucial for our EBL users, and UV litho is strongly impacted if we can’t dehumidify in the summer and humidify in the winter.  PVD systems perform poorly in high humidity environments and static discharge can become an issue for devices in low humidity environments.  I could go on, but I’ve spoken with a lot of users over the years who have learned the hard way about the impacts of poorly controlled lab environments and are complimentary of the environmental controls we have in our facility.

Best,
  -Nathan


--

Nathan Fitzpatrick  PhD, PEng   (He/Him)

Director, Quantum-Nano Fabrication and Characterization Facility (QNFCF)

Office of Research

University of Waterloo

200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON  N2L 3G1

P: 519-888-4567 ext. 31796

C: 226-218-3206

https://uwaterloo.ca/qnfcf/<https://uwaterloo.ca/quantum-nano-fabrication-and-characterization-facility/>



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From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> on behalf of Alex Dixon <agdixon at mines.edu>
Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 at 4:57 PM
To: Lab Network <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
Subject: [labnetwork] Cleanroom humidity

For those of you with climate controls in your cleanrooms, what relative humidity do your keep your cleanroom at, and how tightly do you control the fluccuations?  How significant an effect have you seen on device performance?

Our campus facilities is doing a climate control audit and asking any lab with special requirements to justify them. Any info you could share would be appreceated.

Thanks!
-Alex

__________________________________________________________


Alex Dixon, Ph.D. (He/Him)
Lab Manager
Nanofabrication and Thin Film Deposition
Shared Instrument Facility
Colorado School of Mines

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