Emcore Corporation
A Case Study in Hyper-Fast Track Performance at —Gallium Alley“
Background
Emcore is a high-technology company which has recently gone
public. Located on —Gallium Alley,“ the East Coast‘s response to
Silicone Valley, this high profile manufacturer of semi-conductors
specializes in chips that are nano-seconds faster than silicone-
based devices. Building on its recent successes, Emcore planned
to add a cleanroom facility for the manufacturing and testing of
new semiconductors.
The need to get into production quickly required Emcore to part-
ner with a rapid-response organization which would enable them
to quickly produce product to stringent cleanroom specification.
Logging On With Monsen
The Emcore team, which has recently partnered with Monsen Engineering Company on its
Pegasus cleanroom facility, knew the Design/Construct method was ideally suited to the computer
industry, where speed is of the essence. With one company taking single source accountability,
Emcore was enroute to ontime completion.
The Challenges
- Emcore was putting the new facility into an existing, occupied building with only one outside wall.
- Space was tight! In fact, no floor space could be allotted to mechanical equipment.
- The cleanroom zones have precise temperature and humidity control requirements. One 500
square foot room is a class 10 non-destructive testing lab.
- —Up“ time was critical. Emcore manufactures 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The charge to Monsen was to finish the job, with minimal disruption to the on-site staff, in very short
order, complete with critical backup systems and without taking up any valuable floor space or dis-
rupting adjacent ongoing activities.
The Monsen Program
High, high-tech: Fortunately, there were no restrictions about using the roof. However, to put all
mechanical equipment there, Monsen needed to first reinforce it with structural steel. This need-
ed to be done from inside the operating building. Next, Monsen expanded existing machine room
square footage by building a mezzanine. This was an exacting task, requiring that the mezzanine
be watertight to protect the cleanroom below.
The Hardware
-
240 ton air cooled chiller to serve HVAC and process cooling
loads.
-
Two air handling units: one for the class 1000 manufacturing
area, one for the testing area.
-
All electric switch gear and transformers, usually
housed internally, were designed for placement on
the roof.
Raised floor; HEPA filtration;
Class 1000 testing
Roof mounted mechanical
and support equipment, cre-
ates precious manufacturing
floor space
