Patent ID: 7837805

Claim:
A method for treating a surface, comprising: placing a semiconductor substrate within a chamber, the semiconductor substrate comprising the surface that is to be treated; forming a mixture comprising liquid saturated with a gas; passing the mixture through a nozzle and into the chamber to disperse the mixture into aerosol particles within the chamber; the nozzle being a distance from the semiconductor substrate, and the aerosol particles being transported across such distance to the semiconductor substrate surface; providing a temperature gradient along the distance from the nozzle to the semiconductor substrate surface within the chamber, with said gradient comprising an increase in temperature along a direction from the nozzle to the semiconductor substrate surface; the gas being released from the mixture while the aerosol particles are transported along the temperature gradient within the chamber, and the liquid within the aerosol particles having sufficient surface tension so that at least some of the released gas within individual aerosol particles is retained as one or more bubbles encapsulated by liquid of the individual aerosol particles; and impacting the semiconductor substrate surface with the aerosol particles having the gas bubbles encapsulated therein.