A cleanroom is a highly purified environment, containing as few as 100 “dirty” particles in one cubic foot of air — a cubic foot of air on a typical street can contain approximately 350 million of dirty particles.

Cleanrooms are essential to creating micro and nanotechnologies. Considering that the scale of most of the structures and devices made using micro or nanofabrication processes is 10’s of thousands times smaller than a human hair, dust and dirt can ruin a sample. cleanroom suits are required for entry into these controlled spaces, not to protect the user from the samples, but rather to protect the samples from the user. However, temperature changes and lighting conditions can also ruin these delicate structures as they are being made.

Cleanrooms are engineered to force potential contaminants from the local atmosphere, also maintaining consistent temperatures, and controlling lighting conditions.