Consumables in clean environments - Cross-contamination and emission behaviour of Consumables vs. cleanliness specifications

When performing cleanliness critical works, not only the cleanroom itself has to fulfill the required cleanliness aspects (i.e. air cleanliness classes acc. to 14644-1). In addition, further cleanliness criteria which are interrelated to hardware (systems/components/materials) being used in controlled environments, that could potentially contaminate cleanliness sensitive items/products, have to be taken into account. The equipment's and materials' cleanliness behavior can already be assessed with the help of procedures and methodologies described in 14644-14 and -15. As consumables (e.g. gloves, wipes, face masks, packaging materials) are often used in the direct vicinity of cleanliness critical substrates, it is essential to have information about their contamination behavior. Currently there can hardly be found reliable information about the cleanliness behavior of consumables in literature nor in existing guidelines and standards. To close this gap between the need of industry for information about the cleanliness behavior of consumables (e.g. in regard of ACC, SCP, ACC, SCC, cleanability, chemical resistance) and the lack of approved knowledge an industrial consortium took over this task to establish methodologies to assess the usability of consumables for their use in cleanliness controlled environments. The presentation will give an overview of the actual status and the achievements already performed in this subject.