LASER-INDUCED DRY-CLEANING IN AIR - A NEW SURFACE CLEANING TECHNOLOGY IN LIEU OF CARBON FLUOROCHLORIDE (CFC) SOLVENTS

Surface contaminations are removed by laser irradiation with pulse output and short wavelength. It is a new dry cleaning process to remove surface organic contaminations without using ultrasonic cleaning with carbon fluorochloride (CFC) and other organic solvents. This provides a new dry process to clean different substrate surfaces and can take the place of conventional wet cleaning processes such as ultrasonic cleaning with CFC and other organic solvents. The mechanisms of laser cleaning may include laser photodecomposition, laser ablation and surface vibration due to the impact of laser pulse.