Resarch: Environmental Control System for Photonics Testing

Resarch: Environmental Control System for Photonics Testing

The Challenge:

An international photonics manufacturer that builds photometric testing devices for imaging devices in aerospace, medical, optics, and a variety of other industries approached Air Innovations for help in designing an effective sphere spectrometer system to rate the lumens (luminous flux) in light emitting diode bulbs (an LED characterization system). Since the light output of LEDs is temperature dependent, standardized testing must be conducted in a controlled environment, which is where Air Innovations’ expertise came into play.

The Solution:

Air Innovations designed a custom temperature-control system that can maintain a diverse number of settings within a wide range of temperatures to meet the client’s specific needs. The customer also needed a way to turn the environmental control system off for five seconds and then turn it on again automatically. To meet this challenge, Air Innovations and the customer designed a solution of automatic diverter dampers. By doing so, the environmental control system could operate continuously, but could also suspend the supply air to the test chamber for five seconds. This bypass also functions to control the system’s airflow rate.

The design also included a hot-gas bypass for better coil control and PID controls.

The Result:

All design specifications were met.

1. Temperature control range (to accommodate various LED tests) from 5°C to 50°C ±0.5°C, with transition between those extremes in 25 minutes
2. Airflow range of 30-400 CFM with coarse-grade particle filtration and 0.2” of static pressure
3. The final system operates with heat loads ranging from 0 to 900 watts, with customer controlled heater and fan controls
4. System was delivered to Brazil, so international power and codes applied

This environmental control system’s advantages include small size, silent operation, and energy efficiency.

If you’re ready for an environmental control system from Air Innovations, contact us by submitting a quick Project Inquiry or by calling 1-800-835-3268 today.

If you would like to see case studies for other industries, view our general case studies page. We also have whitepapers available covering the aerospace industry, the semiconductor industry, and our Micro Environments product line. These whitepapers can be found here.

Research: Linear Accelerator Cooling System

This case study discusses how we met linear accelerator cooling requirements for a federal laboratory.

The Challenge:

Air Innovations was approached to design and build a linear accelerator cooling system for a silicon pixel sub-detector (PXL) inside the “STAR” detector, which is located inside the linear accelerator of a federal laboratory. Weighing 1,200 tons and as large as a house, the STAR detector—a Solenoid Tracker designed to search for signatures of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and part of a Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—tracks thousands of particles produced by each ion collision in the RHIC. Physicists use the RHIC to study what the universe might have looked like in the first few moments after its creation.

Meeting the proper linear accelerator cooling requirements would be demanding. Space restrictions and the original, undersized ductwork limited the available ventilation to the PXL housed inside the STAR detector, which caused the system to run the risk of overheating. The STAR detector and RHIC also required cleanroom-quality air. Ambient conditions ranged from 65°F to 85°F with 10% to 50% RH.

The Solution:

Due to the existing space restrictions and equipment configuration, Air Innovations’ cooling system uses an unusually high static pressure with specialized blowers to navigate the original, undersized ductwork. The environmental cooling unit (ECU) was provided with both feet and casters to accommodate installation challenges. Maintaining temperature in this environment requires constant cooling of the airflow in a single-pass arrangement. Air Innovations also added dehumidification to the system because dry, non-condensing air was critical to the research process.

The Result:

1. All design specifications were met within the 9-week lead time
2. The environmental control system included cooling, heating, dehumidification, pre-filtration, and HEPA filtration
3. Design output conditions of 72°F ± 2°F and <50% RH
4. 300 – 600 CFM variable operational range
5. 5.2” water column external static required due to high duct losses
6. All controls available via remote communication through ModBus
7. Water-cooled condenser and hot-gas bypass refrigeration control
8. UL certified

If you would like to see case studies for other industries, view our general case studies page. We also have whitepapers available covering the aerospace industry, the semiconductor industry, and our Micro Environments product line. These whitepapers can be found here.

Research: Water-Cooled ECU for Laboratory

Water-Cooled Environmental Control for Research Lab

A university research lab wanted to expand its infrastructure in the field of nanophotonics and approached Air Innovations for help. In response to their needs, we built a three-cubed, water-cooled air conditioner (each cube 26″ x 30″) with dry-steam humidification for an e-beam lithography tool. The tool will be used to support the research program led by one of the university’s top scientists.

If you’re ready for a custom solution from Air Innovations, contact us by submitting a quick Project Inquiry or by calling 1-800-835-3268 today.

If you would like to see case studies for other industries, view our general case studies page. We also have whitepapers available covering the aerospace industry, the semiconductor industry, and our Micro Environments product line. These whitepapers can be found here.