On the feasibility of a number concentration calibration using a wafer surface scanner

A new primary standard method for calibrating optical particle counters (OPC) has been developed based on quantitative gravitational deposition on a silicon wafer and accurate counting of the particles by a wafer surface scanner (WSS). The test aerosol consists of 3-m diameter monodisperse polystyrene latex (PSL) spheres at concentrations in the range of 0.1 cm^-3 to 1 cm ^-3. A key element to the calibration is the ability to generate monodisperse PSL spheres without residue particles by use of a virtual impactor and differential mobility analyzer. The use of these devices reduced the percentage of residue particles from more than 99.98% to about 5%. The expanded relative uncertainty (95% confidence level) in the number concentration determined with a WSS for a deposition of 200 particles is 17.8%. The major uncertainty component arises from the Poisson fluctuations in the aerosol concentration because of the low concentration. This methodology has advantages of a fast scanning time by the WSS of minutes compared to hours or days by microscopy and of counting every particle deposited compared to often only a small fraction via microscopy.The WSS was used in the calibration of an OPC based on 12 depositions with concentrations ranging from 0.1 cm^-3 to 1 cm^-3 for each deposition. Make-up air was added to the aerosol entering the OPC so that the lowest achievable concentration for the OPC measurement is about 0.01 cm^-3 in this study. The detection efficiency of the OPC was measured to be 0.984 with an expanded uncertainty of 13.4%.