Editing Cleanroom (section)

==History==
The modern cleanroom was invented by American [[physicist]] [[Willis Whitfield]].<ref name=nkwes>{{cite news |first=William |last=Yardley |title=Willis Whitfield, Clean Room Inventor, Dies at 92 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/business/willis-whitfield-clean-room-inventor-dies-at-92.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121205073700/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/business/willis-whitfield-clean-room-inventor-dies-at-92.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 5, 2012 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2012-12-04 |access-date=2013-06-22 }}</ref> As an employee of the [[Sandia National Laboratories]], Whitfield created the initial plans for the cleanroom in 1960.<ref name=nkwes/> Prior to Whitfield's invention, earlier cleanrooms often had problems with particles and unpredictable [[airflow]]s. Whitfield designed his cleanroom with a constant, highly filtered airflow to flush out impurities.<ref name=nkwes/> Within a few years of its invention in the 1960s, Whitfield's modern cleanroom had generated more than US$50 billion in sales worldwide (approximately ${{inflation|US|50|1965|r=0}} billion today).<ref name=kwes>{{cite news |title=Sandia physicist, cleanroom inventor dies at 92 |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sandia-physicist-cleanroom-inventor-dies-at-92 |work=[[KWES-TV|KWES]] |publisher=[[Associated Press]] |date=2012-11-26 |access-date=2012-12-03 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.exyte.net/News%20-%20Events/Specialist%20articles/reinraum_printline_02_2015_Whitfield_110416.pdf|title=Willis Whitfield - Father of the Cleanroom|date=September 2015|publisher=Cleanroom online|access-date=2016-05-18|archive-date=2021-01-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127140505/https://www.exyte.net/News%20-%20Events/Specialist%20articles/reinraum_printline_02_2015_Whitfield_110416.pdf|url-status=dead}}<!--Document specified as "02-2015", pathway as 2014-11, http date as 2016-04-19 --></ref>

By mid-1963, more than 200 U.S. industrial plants had such specially constructed facilities—then using the terminology “White Rooms,” “Clean Rooms,” or “Dust-Free Rooms”—including the Radio Corporation of America, McDonnell Aircraft, Hughes Aircraft, Sperry Rand, Sylvania Electric, Western Electric, Boeing, and North American Aviation.<ref>Koslow, Jules. “Industry’s Pursuit of Cleanliness.” Electronic Age 22:3 (Summer 1963), 22-25.</ref> RCA began such a conversion of part of its Cambridge, Ohio facilities in February 1961. Totalling 70,000 square feet, it was used to prepare control equipment for the Minuteman ICBM missiles.<ref>Koslow, Jules. “Industry’s Pursuit of Cleanliness.” Electronic Age 22:3 (Summer 1963), 22-25.</ref>

The majority of the integrated circuit manufacturing facilities in [[Silicon Valley]] were made by three companies: MicroAire, PureAire, and Key Plastics. These competitors made laminar flow units, glove boxes, cleanrooms and [[Air shower (room)|air showers]], along with the chemical tanks and benches used in the "wet process" building of integrated circuits. These three companies were the pioneers of the use of [[Polytetrafluoroethylene|Teflon]] for airguns, chemical pumps, scrubbers, water guns, and other devices needed for the [[semiconductor device fabrication|production of integrated circuit]]s. William (Bill) C. McElroy Jr. worked as an engineering manager, drafting room supervisor, QA/QC, and designer for all three companies, and his designs added 45 original patents to the technology of the time. McElroy also wrote a four-page article for MicroContamination Journal, wet processing training manuals, and equipment manuals for wet processing and cleanrooms.<ref>William (Bill) C. McElroy Jr., MicroAire Engineering Manager and acting VP; Kay Plastics Engineering Manager; PureAire Drafting Room Manager</ref>{{cn|date=April 2024}}