Building environment control for advanced precision instruments - state-of-the-art and future perspectives

With the development of modern science, sensitive precision instrumentations, which require a reliable and ultra-high precision building environment of temperature, humidity, vibration, cleanliness, and much more, have been increasingly concerned in high-tech scenarios such as advanced metrology, scientific instrumentations, and high-tech fabrications. Nowadays, there is a lack of systematic reviews on advanced building environment control technologies for precision instruments, which have huge differences from widely-used comfort air-conditioning systems. Firstly, requirements and problems for the design in different application scenarios are discussed. Then, challenges and limitations for operation control are demonstrated. According to existing studies, the convective-radiant combined supply cooling mode may be a potential technology, and yet there are still unsolved problems including micro-vibration, multi-parameter cooperative precision control, fluctuation suppression, and dehumidification of ultra-low humidity environment. This review is expected to provide the reference for researchers, designers, and builders to design and implement building environment solutions for advanced precision instruments.