Receptor Modeling for Contaminant Particle Source Apportionment in Clean Rooms

Receptor modeling is used to apportion the contaminant particle concentrations among their sources in clean rooms through particle number concentration balances at various size intervals. The technique is demonstrated with optical particle counter data from an IBM clean room and a clean room at the University of Cincinnati. Quantitative contributions of two particulate sources to the aerosol concentration near wafer fabricating units were determined in both clean rooms. Good agreement was obtained between measured and predicted size distributions of the aerosol at the receptor sites.