MicronView has launched a new airborne particle counter capable of detecting particles as small as 0.1µm, which is roughly 700 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
The new product expands the contamination monitoring capabilities the company can offer for semiconductor fabrication, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and other ultraclean environments.
The company said the technology extends particle measurement beyond traditional cleanroom monitoring approaches, which typically focus on particles of 0.5µm and above, providing additional data for environments where smaller particles can influence product yield, surface quality, and device performance.
The new airborne particle counter has been developed for applications including semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and other industries requiring strict contamination control.
MicronView has launched two configurations of the system: the A010 model, which operates at a 10 litres per minute (LPM) flow rate and is designed for high-sensitivity detection, and the A030 model, which operates at 28.3 LPM and supports standard cleanroom sampling volumes and classification workflows.
Both models provide measurement channels starting at 0.1µm, with the A010 covering particle sizes from 0.1µm to 1.0µm and the A030 measuring particles from 0.1µm to 5.0µm.
The system catches roughly half of the absolute smallest particles at 0.1µm.
For particles slightly larger, above 0.15µm, it achieves near-perfect detection.
The system maintains a sizing error of less than 15% at 0.2µm, capturing virtually 100% of them and categorising particle sizes with high accuracy.
MicronView said the airborne particle counter also includes a HEPA-filtered exhaust system to reduce the risk of local recontamination, as well as programmable sampling plans, data storage, ISO-aligned reporting and user access controls to support cleanroom compliance requirements.
The particle counter can be used as a standalone instrument for cleanroom classification, requalification, tool-level investigations and contamination excursion analysis.
It can also be integrated with MicronView’s EMC Robot platform for automated sampling across multiple locations.
In 2024, the company partnered with the European distribution company PMT to grow its environmental monitoring reach.
