Clean Room Technology

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  A clean room is a work area with controlled temperature and humidity to protect sensitive equipment from contamination. It contains plastic walls and ceilings, external lighting, and there is a continuous influx of clean, dust-free air. The room should be cleaned daily to prevent contamination.

Many different industries require the use of a clean room. Medical facilities, integrated circuit manufacturers, and dairy farms are just a few. Most data recovery labs at least have a class 100 or better clean room to perform even the most basic recovery procedures. Any physically damaged hard disk, for instance, must be recovered in a clean room. Without a clean room, contaminants can settle on the platters. After a hard disk platter has become contaminated, the heads can catch on these particles, more or less sanding the platter surface. This can result in data loss.

It is vital that construction of the clean room includes strict control of the environmental conditions in order to insure a quality room. The environmental conditions in a clean room are controlled by particle enclosure during installation of the wall, floor, ceiling and media. Later, particle sources cannot be easily removed and the particles could cause contamination.

The equipment used in a clean room environment depends on the level of cleanliness required. In industries where a specific level of cleanliness has been established, the Federal Standard STD-209E form is used. This standard outlines the airborne particulate cleanliness classes. Class limits are given for each class name. These limits designate specific concentrations (particles per unit volume) of airborne particles found in the clean room.