Cleanrooms: The basis for science and technology

1. What is a clean room?

A clean room is not just a sterile room — it is an environment in which even air becomes a precisely controlled element. Even a single speck of dust can be found in the photonics or in chip manufacturing Make the difference between success and failure. Thanks to proven technologies such as those used in clean rooms, the concentration of particles and microorganisms is reduced to a minimum. With the help of precise filter and air flow systems, cleanrooms are becoming indispensable components of modern Science and technology【1】【2】

2. How is cleanliness guaranteed in clean rooms?

Cleanrooms win their fight against particles and germs through a combination of different systems:

• HEPA filters as particle traps: These filters, in particular class H14, eliminate up to 99.995% of the smallest suspended matter. As in the article HEPA filters: Precision technology for clean air and the highest standards explained, they form the backbone of cleanroom technology and guarantee clean air even under the strictest requirements.
• Directed airflows: Laminar flows prevent particles from lingering in the air and direct them out of the room in a targeted manner.
• Lock systems: Locks for people and materials act like barriers that protect the cleanroom from external contamination.

Depending on the cleanroom class, the air in the clean room is up to 600 times per hour completely replaced. This means: Every second, the air is kept moving and purified even before it penetrates — this is how contaminated air is diluted and displaced by the clean air【2】【3】.

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3. Cleanroom classes: cleanliness in figures

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The purity of a clean room is divided into classes. ISO 14644-1 describes nine classes, with class 1 being the cleanest and class 9 the least stringent. Applications such as laser production require class ISO 5 clean rooms, which allow a maximum of 3,520 particles ≥0.5 µm per cubic meter. An illustrative comparison: An ISO 5 clean room is around 100,000 times cleaner than the air in an average urban living room. This is achieved through continuous air changes and precise monitoring of air quality — essential for industries such as photonics or microelectronics【1】【4】.

It is important to differentiate between technical clean rooms in accordance with ISO and clean rooms for life sciences. ISO cleanrooms focus primarily on controlling the concentration of particles in the air and are essential for industries such as microelectronics or photonics, where even tiny particles can cause production errors. Clean rooms for the life sciences, on the other hand, follow GMP guidelines (Good Manufacturing Practice) and place a particular focus on preventing microbiological contamination. These are of crucial importance in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, to ensure the sterility of drugs and medical products.

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4. Where clean rooms are essential

Whether in microelectronics or optical manufacturing: clean rooms create the conditions for precise, contamination-free work processes. Here, the smallest particles that are invisible to the naked eye can make entire production batches unusable. Clean rooms guarantee the necessary control and create flexibility for a wide range of applications【3】【4】thanks to modular design.

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5. Product protection: safety for sensitive processes

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Clean rooms are essential to protect sensitive production processes from contamination. Dust or microscopic particles can impair quality or make production impossible.

Thanks to HEPA filters and intelligent flow concepts, the air stays pure and particles have no chance. This invisible barrier ensures that sophisticated products such as microchips or optics can be manufactured under perfect conditions — a central component of modern technology.【2】【4】.

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Source citations

1. ISO 14644-1:2015, clean rooms and associated clean room areas — classification of air purity according to particle concentration.
2. ISO 14644-4:2021, clean rooms and associated clean room areas — planning and execution.
3. Ljungqvist B., Reinmuller B. (2020), People as a Contamination Source in Pharmaceutical Cleanrooms.
4. Whyte W., Ward S, Agricola K (2018), Ventilation effectiveness in cleanrooms, European Journal of Parenteral and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 23 (4).

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