Ever heard of Moore’s law? The law states, basically, that approximately every two years, the number of transistors that can be included in an integrated circuit doubles. In other words, every two years, the amount of necessary space occupied by the transistors in a computer gets cut in half. The expression of Moore’s law is that on an ongoing basis, computers are becoming smaller and smaller. Why is this? There are two reasons. First: investment in new computer technology is never in short supply. Second: the smaller and more portable computers get, the more practical, accessible and affordable they become.
Smaller seems to be better, at least as far as consumers are concerned. However, while industry has demonstrated that they can make computer parts extraordinarily small, there’s no way to reduce the size of the hands that make them. As the demand for smaller, more advanced computer parts increases, so does the demand for the constituent parts of the infrastructure that makes the manufacture of those parts possible. That infrastructure often includes semiconductor clean rooms, which are the spaces in which the semiconductor components in computers are manufactured and assembled.
Semiconductor clean rooms offer technicians a space in which semiconductor products can be produced without the interference of wind, contamination by dust, product loss because of built-up static electricity or other hazards. The use of semiconductor clean rooms in the production of computer components helps to assure the quality of the finished products. These environments also allow technicians to keep environmental variables such as air temperature, humidity and light type and intensity under strict control, which minimizes that chances that environmental conditions will negatively affect fabrication processes.
Semiconductor clean rooms are, without a doubt, very important variables in the high-tech fabrication equation, and unless demand for high-tech gadgets abates, the need for semiconductor clean rooms is likely to continue.
