IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Surface Engineering Tuesday Sessions
       Session SE-TuM

Paper SE-TuM4
Noncontact Physical Removal of Nano-scale Particles from Surfaces

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 9:20 am, Room 132

Session: Surface Engineering II: Cleaning, Modification, and Finishing
Presenter: A.A. Busnaina, Northeastern University
Authors: A.A. Busnaina, Northeastern University
H. Lin, Clarkson University
Correspondent: Click to Email

There is a need to physically manipulate, control or remove nanoscale particles. The removal of nanoscale particles physically without substrate damage or alteration is needed in nanoscale manufacturing. It is needed to remove existing contaminants from a substrate. Even in the semiconductor industry, such a need is a projected requirement in 2011. However, this need is required toady in nanoscale fabrication. Physical non contact removal using high frequency acoustic streaming had been used to remove submicron particles. However, the removal of 100 nm particles and smaller is becoming a serious challenge. Busnaina et al.@footnote 1@ studied megahertz streaming particle removal and evaluated the effect of acoustic streaming on the cleaning process. High frequency acoustic streaming is a promising technique for nano-scale particles removal. Using DI water, the removal of nano-size particles down to 10 nm can be best accomplished using acoustic streaming with frequency above 1.3 MHz. As the frequency increases, the acoustic boundary layer thickness decreases and the streaming velocity increases thereby increasing the drag force and consequently the removal moment. Softer particles (such as PSL) are more difficult to remove than hard particles (such as silica), because of adhesion-induced deformation, needing a much higher frequency. The experimental results show that a complete removal of silica particles down to 100 nm is achievable. . @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@Busnaina, A. A. and Gale, G. W, Journal of Particulate Science and Technology, 17(3), 1999.