[labnetwork] Flooring - ISO 5/6

Thu May 14 11:04:33 EDT 2015

Fab Colleagues,

I'd like to broaden the discussion of conductive floors and electrostatic
discharge (ESD). I have trouble understanding how it is dealt with. At the
outset, I have little experience with ESD as our lab is near the Pacific
Ocean with moderate climate. ESD is less an issue for us than in the drier,
colder parts of the US. However, given the climate controls in newer fabs
it would seem ESD is less and issue within a fab than in the environs.

To use the lab our members and staff suit up with boots that are
dielectric, shoe covers, gowns, caps and then nitrile gloves (we are aware
some cleanroom garb is available from conductive materials). Noting this
the gloves seem to be a "fly to the ointment" for ESD control.

Example. Recently a lab member asked for replacement of ESD wrist straps at
our wire bonders. My question is how much protection from ESD is had by a
conductive bracelet if the ultimate garb is a pair of dielectric gloves? It
seems gloves provide a barrier which acting for and against and ESD
strategy.

Although oblique to this discussion I'd like to mention we also have a
robust ground-grid consisting of a flat 2" copper strap to provide
excellent grounds for equipment, particularly rf enabled systems.

Of note, in a long history of semiconductor research we have not
encountered device failures from ESD in our evolving lab environments.
Having said this, the University of California Marvell NanoLab was built
with conductive vinyl floors.

Regards,
Bob Hamilton

PS I'll digress a bit and share an story. The UC's anthropology library
came to us some years back to find a way to neutralize the electrostatic
force that bound ancient Egyptian papyrus to the plastic envelopes they
were stored in. The papyrus was bound so tightly it tore before breaking
loose. We introduced them to Ion Systems, specialist in ESD room control.
Ion Systems came up with an effective solution to their problem.

Robert Hamilton
University of CA, Berkeley
Marvell NanoLab Equipment Manager
Rm 520 Sutardja Dai Hall, MC 1754
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone 510-809-8618 (desk - preferred)
Mobile 510-325-7557 (my personal mobile)
E-mail preferred: bob at eecs.berkeley.edu
http://nanolab.berkeley.edu/

On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 5:12 PM, Paul, Jack <Jack.Paul at hdrinc.com> wrote:

>  Greetings Loïk,
> May I suggest a seamless resilient floor material (sheet vinyl with welded
> seams) in lieu of epoxy?
>
> There are various sheet vinyl products available that can be installed
> less expensively than epoxy, and even more important, more easily repaired
> in an operational cleanroom environment.
>
> One product we have used successfully is Medintech, by Armstrong, which is
> a homogeneous sheet vinyl material that can be installed with heat-welded
> seams and has good chemical resistance as well as static conductivity.
> There are other competing products that work just as well (this is by no
> means a sales pitch for Armstrong!).
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Best regards,
> Jack
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [
> mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu>]
> On Behalf Of Loïk GENCE
> Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2015 11:44 AM
> To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
> Subject: [labnetwork] Flooring - ISO 5/6
>
>
> Dear All,
>
> I would like to get some suggestions about of flooring for a small
> cleanroom ISO 5/6.
> We are thinking about a dissipative epoxi flooring with copper tape for
> grounding.
>
> Do you have some experience with this kind of flooring. Is there an
> alternative to epoxi?
>
> Thank you for your comments.
>
>
> Regards,
> Loïk
>
>
>
> --
> __________________________________________
> Dr. Loïk Gence
>
> PUC-RIO/CETUC-LABSEM
>
> End Rua Marques de São Vicente, 225-Gavea
> CEP:22451-900   Rio de Janeiro, RJ-Brasil
>
>        (Telefone)      +55 (021) 3527-2193
>
>         (Mobile)     +55 (021) 99156-5558
>
> loik.gence at cetuc.puc-rio.br
> __________________________________________
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> labnetwork mailing list
> labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
> https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> labnetwork mailing list
> labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
> https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mtl.mit.edu/pipermail/labnetwork/attachments/20150514/12e3335a/attachment.html>