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Calculating the annual cost of energy to heat and cool a gas pad in your cleanroom or fab.

There are several ways to do this, but in all cases the site weather is the most important factor affecting the cost. For buildings or areas within buildings that draw in quantities of outdoor air and exhaust it through equipment and are not significantly affected by solar heat gains or losses, the annual energy cost


Does your high purity gas system need electropolished (EP) stainless steel components?

For fab managers in semi-conductor and photovoltaic (PV) manfacturing, this is a common question. Going back to the basics, to convey a “high purity” gas, the gas system must be free from contaminants and leaks.  At one time (1970’s) copper tubing was sufficient, then chemically cleaned stainless steel was sufficient (1980’s), but finally electropolishing followed


CSI Designed Components for Improved Delatech Scrubber Performance

The Critical Systems, Inc. Abatement Team has been on the ‘receiving end’ of many troubleshooting phone calls for many years, and recently developed two inexpensive product modifications to address the most frequent problem areas on these scrubbers. “U” Shaped Drain The most common problem with Delatech Scrubbers is sediment buildup in the drain assembly.   This


Proper Cycle Purge and Other Best Practices for Maintaining Clean High Purity Gas Lines

Moisture, oxygen, or any molecular contamination are enemies to specialty gases, such as Silane (SiH4), Hydrogen Bromide (HBr), etc.   Keeping your gases clean will not only preserve your gas delivery system, but will also help maintain maximum yields on your process tool.     A well maintained gas cabinet will last for many years — conversely, a


Scientists Successfully “Mimic” Fullerenes to Advance Organic Solar Cell Technology

Many researchers and manufacturers have pegged organic solar cells as the future for the solar industry because the manufacturing process entails the use of flexible and cheap polymers. Scientists from the University of Warwick Department of Chemistry have published a new study in the journal Advanced Materials. The paper covers the details of their discovery


Promising Solar-Cell Fabric Technology for Cell Phones, Tablets and Other Devices

A team of researchers made up of scientists, engineers, and chemists from around the global has created ground-breaking technology that combines silicon-based optical fibers with solar cells. The makes it a near reality to integrating solar-cell silicon fibers to produce bendable, curved or twisted solar fabric. The researchers also demonstrated that it could scale the


Flexible Substrate Brings Next Generation Electronics Closer to Reality

Field effect transistors marked a significant turning point for the modern electronics industry. For many years, manufacturers built semiconductors with silicon and gallium arsenide. Companies eventually replaced these semiconductor materials with amorphous silicon (a-silicon or a-Si), which makes up the primary material used to fabricate the thin film transistors (TFT) used in liquid crystal displays.


Rainbows Created on Nanoscale Structures Can Improve Solar Cell Efficiency

King’s College London has a tradition of investigating color separation and projection. Research conducted at the institution 150 years ago eventually led to the development of color television and LED displays. A paper published in Nature’s Scientific Reports reports researchers in King’s College Department of Physics have develop a method which allows for the manipulation


Scientists Replicate Lung Medical Condition on an Organ Chip

A Forbes.com article reports that during the advertising of the 2012 Super Bowl, a post on the Eli Lilly blog reveals the firm spends an average of $1.3 billion to bring a new drug on the market. Forbes and Bernard Munos of the InnoThink Center for Research in Biomedical Innovation looked at the R&D numbers


Reducing LED Chip Manufacturing Costs

Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), also called Metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) or organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE), involves a complex chemical deposition method. MOCVD grows multiple layers of crystalline semiconductor materials, such as Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) or Indium Phosphide (InP), on a substrate. Epitaxy is an important process in the manufacturing of chips for



Since 2000, Critical Systems, Inc. (CSI) has been providing both large and small organizations with products and services that ‘surround the process tool’.  From orbital welding to complex gas delivery and abatement systems, CSI supports the breakthrough technologies of our customers every day with practical, cost effective solutions.