Project Completed with Temp Control to ±0.04°C and RH to ±1%
Syracuse, NY February 26, 2014
Air Innovations – the leader in custom environmental control solutions for temperature, humidity, filtration, and pressure – announced the availability of a new case study on a global supplier to the semiconductor and photomask making industries, for which the company created an environmental control unit (ECU) that could service — on demand — any of its customers’ nanomachining mask repair tool systems.
Air Innovations configured vertical, stainless-steel environmental control systems to the client’s various types of mask repair tools. For optimal tool calibration, the units were configured to provide recirculated, steady-state air to the mask-repair tool at 19°C to 23°C with a tolerance of just ±0.04°C (around the set point). Humidity was also tightly controlled to ±1% relative humidity (RH) around a set point between 45-55% RH. The environmental control units were also designed to accept a range of incoming power at 208V/3Phase and either 50 or 60 Hz without degradation of overall performance.
Additional key specifications included maximum temperature and/or relative humidity deviation over time (from ambient semiconductor fab air), maximum external static pressure at various air flow rates, and electric reheat capabilities.
“One of the biggest challenges in using lithography in high-volume semiconductor fabrication is photomask defectivity. The ECUs in this semiconductor equipment repair tool needed to regulate temperature and humidity with tight tolerances; otherwise the tool’s performance would have been impacted. We delivered two configured systems that met the required specs and that could communicate with the customer’s nanomachining mask-repair tools anywhere in the world,” stated Michael Wetzel, CEO of Air Innovations.
The full version of the case study can be found on the Air Innovations website.
To learn more about how Air Innovations can solve critical environmental control challenges, visit www.airinnovations.com, email info@airinnovations.com, or call toll-free in the U.S. or Canada 800-825-3268 (international +1 315 452-7400).
About Air Innovations
Air Innovations designs and builds environmental process control systems for applications that can’t be addressed with standard HVAC equipment. The company customizes packaged solutions for: temperature (with control tolerances as precise as plus or minus 0.01°C); humidity (with control tolerances to plus or minus 0.5%); filtration (HEPA, ultra low particulate air [ULPA], and molecular); pressure; and, direct expansion, chilled water or thermoelectric capabilities.
Air Innovations works closely with its clients to tailor products that can either be integrated into their original equipment or be freestanding. Air Innovations serves a broad range of industries, including aerospace, defense, semiconductor, R&D, pharmaceutical. Some recent Air Innovations projects include designing and building air conditioning for complex structures such as the cabins for very large Ferris wheels, process control systems for pharmaceutical blister packaging machines, and a cooling system for a silicon pixel sub-detector located inside a linear accelerator at a federal laboratory.
The company also manufactures its own brands of environmental control products that are used by: fine wine collectors (Wine Guardian®); supermarket florists (Floratech®); hospitals (IsolationAir®); and, homeowners seeking purified room air (HEPAirX®).
All Air Innovations products are designed, tested and manufactured at its 40,000 square-foot headquarters in Syracuse, NY.