The Cleanroom

I was super busy today, down in the cleanroom for the better part of six hours. When we do processing down in the cleanroom, we use some nasty chemicals. I’ve used some seriously nasty stuff that past month or so and I am extra careful to follow all the safety precautions, wearing gloves, the apron, googles and a face shield. Even still, I always worry that something bad is gonna happen and I’m gonna spill something on myself. It’s funny how your mind plays tricks on you when you are trying to be extra careful. But I guess it’s pays to be cautious cause we do use some nasty stuff. What kind of stuff, you ask?

NH₄OH (Ammonium Hydroxide) This stuff is a nasty poison that is actually pretty common in most industrial cleaning solvents. It’s bad stuff.

HCl (Hydrocholoric Acid) Most common acid used I would imagine. You also have some in your stomach. It does a good job of removing trace metals which is why we use it, but it still freaks me out.

H₂0₂ (Hydrogen Peroxide) This stuff doesn’t scare me too much but it’s included because it sounds cool. I guess there are certain facts about hydrogen peroxide they don’t want you to know about.

HNO₃ (Nitric Acid) By itself it’s not too bad, but whoozers. It can do some serious damage.

HF (Hydroflouric Acid). This stuff is the most horrible in my mind. I don’t really burn your skin, it actually is transported through your skin and then attacks your bones. Here are a couple gross pictures of what it can do.

So anyway, I’m getting ready to do the last step in our process which is to dip my samples in an H₂O:HNO₃:HF solution which etches our devices. So I get ready to dip the samples into the beaker and I realize I’m not wearing googles, face mask, or protective gloves. Then I realize I that my glove that I was using to agitate the samples was wet. So I got all freaked out, thinking for sure it was covered in this nasty acid concoction. All of a sudden I think my fingers are starting to hurt. I’m sure my skin is gonna start sluffing off any second now. Turns out that I had cleaned out a water beaker only seconds before the acid dip and it was only water on my hands.

But I’ll be darned if my mind was playing tricks on me all the way home. I still am looking at my fingers, looking for the tell-tale signs of an acid burn. If I wake up tomorrow with fingers like the picture above, I’ll let you know.