How are ‘particles of interest’ measured in cleanroom and controlled processing environments?
In liquid particle counting for infusions and injections, the sizes of interest are ≥10μm and ≥25μm, whereas sizes of interest for pharmaceutical air particle cleanliness are ≥0.5μm and ≥5.0μm.
Even higher sensitivities are required for semiconductor manufacturing plants where cleanroom and mini-environment air is routinely monitored at 0.1 μm and lower. Hard disk manufacturers typically monitor to ~0.2 μm–0.3 μm and flat panel display manufacturing environments monitor to 0.3 μm - 1.0 μm.