THE EFFECT OF TIME, TEMPERATURE AND PARTICLE-SIZE ON SUBMICRON PARTICLE REMOVAL USING ULTRASONIC CLEANING

Ultrasonic cleaning is an established method for removing micron-size particles or larger from hard substrates. This paper presents the effect of the ultrasonic frequency and time functions on submicron particle removal effectiveness. The effect of the particle size, concentration and the cleaning liquid temperature is also investigated. The removal efficiency is shown to he dependent on the ultrasonic time and frequency functions. The liquid temperature is shown to have a major effect on the ultrasonic cleaning process. The removal efficiency is shown to decrease with decreasing particle diameter. The results show that the ultrasonic cleaning technique can effectively remove particles of sizes 0.3 mum and larger.