A Century-Old Process Helping Semiconductors Get Cleaned Up.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: JAMES DETAR

Researchers have found a way to clean tiny particles from semiconductor wafers by using a 100-year-old process.

It could be a key breakthrough for the chip industry, which takes cleanliness very seriously. A speck that's invisible to the human eye can ruin a chip that costs hundreds of dollars. Chipmakers like Intel Corp. spend millions of dollars every year making sure no particles touch the surface of their polished silicon platters.

A company called Phrasor Scientific Inc. is behind the new cleaning technology. The idea is to blast wafers with electrostatically charged water and some innocuous chemicals.

These droplets are powerful enough to dislodge the tiniest of particles, says Julius Perel, president and co-founder of the Duarte, Calif., company. And they don't just work on silicon wafers.

"It will clean almost anything you can put into a chamber and bombard," he said. Perel calls the process NanoClean.

It's a variation of a process used for more than 100 years. When certain liquids are electrically charged, they form tiny clusters of droplets. When forced through a nozzle, they come out with great force.