ABSTRACT
The field of particle removal and surface cleaning in general extends far beyond the electronics industry. An era of the most challenging cleaning applications in nanomanufacturing is upon us. Surfaces prepared for nanoscale applications, such as deposition of mono-layers or self-assembly of nanoelements, need to be completely free of any particulate contamination on the order of a nanometer or less. Nanoscale contamination removal from nanostructures has been studied both experimentally and theoretically using numerical modeling. One promising approach is the use of high-frequency pulsating flow to enhance transport from small cavities by enhanced convective mixing. The double layer force, which can be attractive or repulsive, also plays a role in the removal of particles. A computational fluid dynamic model has been developed to get a better understanding of the detachment mechanism and the particle removal and transport during megasonic cleaning and the effect of time and frequency on cleaning.
