Turning Craft into High-Tech: SMT Operations

The coated optics continue their journey through operations into one of the cleanest rooms in Germany. In a cleanroom at ZEISS, only 3,500 particles are suspended in one cubic meter of air – compared to the 100 million that are common in normal room air. Cleanroom suits, overshoes, hair covers, gloves and face masks for employees, as well as special air filter systems and extraction devices in the production building, ensure maximum cleanliness. This is necessary because even the smallest particles on these optics can later disrupt the performance of the overall optical system and thus the structuring of the integrated circuits in semiconductor manufacturing. In the cleanrooms at ZEISS, the frame parts from the high-precision mechanical production are assembled with the lenses and mirrors and adjusted with sub-micron precision – either manually or with robotic assistance. This is how the world's most sophisticated lithography optics are created, enabling the manufacture of the most powerful microchips for the global digital revolution.

Obviously, there are specialists at work here who are masters of both high-tech and craftsmanship – because decisions often still require the experience and knowledge of these experts when it comes to achieving atomic precision. And that's why ZEISS employs not only visionary developers and researchers, but also precision opticians and technicians, machine operators and mechatronics engineers – to name just a few examples. Some colleagues have joined us coming from external companies, but many have been with ZEISS since their vocational training. They learned their respective trades from scratch: for instance, turning and milling different metals or polishing optical lenses and mirrors – first by hand in the training workshop, then using some of the most modern machinery far and wide.