Your flexible friend

If you want flexibility in lab design as requirements change, then it pays to involve vendors from the start says Louise Bertagnolli

Due to the financial investment required for such facilities, both university and private R&D laboratories are designed and built to accommodate the needs of a wide range of researchers

As research has become more complex, sophisticated cleanrooms have become a virtual necessity for a wide range of cutting edge physical science, material science, and biomedical disciplines. Due to the financial investment required for such facilities, both university and private R&D laboratories are designed and built to accommodate the needs of a wide range of researchers. This presents a challenge: few lab managers have the experience to select and set up lab equipment with the versatility required to serve such a diverse group of users over decades of continually changing research.

Now a growing number of lab administrators are optimising their microfabrication equipment, both for current and future needs, by involving their vendors early in the process. This enables expert planning as well as the selection of standard equipment options that can improve safety, usability, and efficiency while cutting cost. Often university lab managers have never built their own cleanroom before, so they hire an architectural firm to do the design, but are still a little lost on how to lay out the equipment for all the different potential uses. Because universities are always pushing the boundaries of research, the equipment has to be very flexible so it can be used in ways not even conceived of yet.

Whether for compound semiconductor, nanotechnology, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), biophotonics, biomedical electronics, or creating solar power alternatives to traditional silicon wafer construction, much of the advanced research done in labs today requires microfabrication operations. This typically includes wet processing equipment for metal lift-off, stripping, etching, plating/coating, cleaning, and de-bonding.

A little help from your friends

Dennis M. Schweiger, Senior Director of Infrastructure at the University of Michigan’s Lurie Nanofabrication Facility (LNF), feels that the right combination of user requirements and assistance from the equipment fabricator can make a significant difference in the design, layout, and operation of a wet processing station.

The LNF is an open use facility with hundreds of users from various UM departments, as well as many other universities and businesses

The LNF is a world-class facility in all areas of semiconductor device and circuit fabrication, integrated microsystems and MEMS technologies, nanotechnology, nanoelectronics, nanophotonics and nanobiotechnology. The LNF is an open use facility with hundreds of users from various UM departments, as well as many other universities and businesses. Schweiger says: “Since we essentially rent lab space and equipment to our diverse users, it is important that we provide them with benches that suit their purposes well, from those who are processing wafers to those who may be doing very advanced research or testing on non-wafer components.”

The main concern is about setting up the cleanroom and procedures to serve the needs of users, but the process is not always well defined and there are many unknowns. When designing and laying out cleanroom equipment, it is important to talk with a vendor or consultant with the experience to help you achieve your evolving research goals. It is also essential that they help ensure it is correctly set up, that the proper safety, operation, and maintenance procedures are in place, and that lab managers are properly trained to carry these out.

Maintaining safety and flexible function for wet processing equipment often requires selecting the most appropriate options from a number of technologies. This may involve various chemistries, temperature controls, chemical baths/dips, ergonomic designs, as well as cleaning, filtration, ventilation, safety, and disposal technologies.

Custom yet standardised

To facilitate the economical design and building of a wet processing equipment solution, many users insist on a standardised approach with customisable features that will best handle their applications parameters.

Equipment is often modular by design, allowing for easy changing and reconfiguration should process or product requirements change

Standard products and standard methodologies are often used to design and manufacture equipment. Equipment is often modular by design, allowing for easy changing and reconfiguration should process or product requirements change. Specifying the design parameters for many manual benches may not be as involved as those of automated systems, however, soliciting the opinion of equipment manufacturers regarding equipment design may be highly beneficial.

For certain processes like etchings and cleanings, lab managers will want to be flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of users and projects. We are, for example, often asked for tank construction materials that can withstand a number of concentrated acids, so part of design flexibility is ensuring you use the most compatible materials for the most acids. Another aspect to consider is properly separating, neutralising, and disposing of all the chemistries involved after use, whether in drains or tanks for treatment or pick up.

Having the vendor visit the user’s facility can contribute to equipment design versatility that can accommodate changes in lab use over the long term. An eye toward optimising working space, operating cost, or maintenance can go a long way toward creating a cleanroom that will serve the user community well now and in the future.

Author: Louise Bertagnolli is president of JST Manufacturing