Laser assisted particle removal from Silicon wafers

We have studied the removal of submicrometer particles from silicon wafers by the steam laser cleaning (SLC) and dry laser cleaning (DLC) processes. These processes are currently being investigated as new promising cleaning technologies for complementing traditional methods in industrial applications. For SLC a thin liquid layer (e.g. a water-alcohol mixture) is condensed onto the substrate, and is subsequently evaporated by irradiating the surface with a short laser pulse. The DLC process, on the other hand, relies only on the laser pulse, without application of a vapor jet. Using well-characterized monodisperse polystyrene and silica particles as well as irregularly shaped alumina particl…