IEST revises IEST-RP-CC031.3

Published: 28-Oct-2011

New appendix provides reference table that lists materials found in cleanrooms


A newly revised Recommended Practice (RP) from the US Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) describes a method for characterising organic compounds outgassed from materials or components exposed to air or gases in cleanrooms and other controlled environments.

Published by the IEST Contamination Control Division, IEST-RP-CC031.3: Method for Characterizing Outgassed Organic Compounds from Cleanroom Materials and Components provides both a semi-quantitative determination and a qualitative identification of a range of compounds.

The method is designed primarily to screen cleanroom materials but can also be applied to materials used in other controlled environments for identification of outgassed compounds detectable by dynamic headspace gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

‘A new appendix in this revision of the RP provides users with an easy-reference table that lists various materials of construction found in cleanrooms, along with a list of generic classes of organic compounds that can outgas from them,’ said Jim Ohlsen, chairman of IEST Working Group CC031, which developed the document.

‘An added feature is a list of example organic compounds within these generic classes that are known to cause problems.’

The RP is relevant to industries that may experience adverse production yields as a result of gaseous organic contamination, also known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs).

In the semiconductor industry, the deposition of outgassed compounds on hardware, products, and wafer surfaces is recognised as a source of processing problems and hardware failures.

In aerospace, the presence of molecular contamination can significantly degrade spacecraft performance goals and hasten end-of-life projections.

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