With the trend towards ever more compact, highly integrated, and high-performance products in the fields of electronics and mechatronics, the problem of contamination by microparticles in the air or in liquids is becoming a major consideration.
For example, during the manufacturing process of a 1-megabyte DRAM LSI chip, 0.1-micron size particles can critically impair the product, and now, with the focus shifting to 64 and 256-megabyte chips, even particles as small as 0.05 micron can cause unacceptable contamination.
Since particles floating in the air often carry bacteria, particle control is being increasingly necessary for pharmaceutical and foodstuff production as well.
In all of these areas of industry, clean rooms with carefully controlled particle levels are very important. Purity control is seen as vital for maintaining product quality and increasing yield in more and more fields of industry, thus contributing to the advancement of leading-edge technology.
