Patent ID: 8388762

Claim:
A method for cleaning a substrate having opposed surfaces, one of which includes contaminants thereon, said method comprising: placing the substrate in an immersion tank filled with a solution; generating relative movement between the solution and said substrate in a direction transverse to a normal to one of said opposed surfaces to create two spaced-apart flows while introducing and removing the substrate from said immersion tank, and activating one or more first valves that generate a first flow each of said spaced-apart flows moving in a common direction, said solution having coupling elements entrained therein and said relative movement imparting sufficient drag upon a subset of said coupling elements to create movement of the coupling elements of said subset within said solution and impart a quantity of said drag upon said contaminant to cause said contaminant to move with respect to said substrate, said coupling elements having a hardness that is less than a hardness on a surface of said substrate; and reversing a direction of said spaced-apart flows, while deactivating the one or more first valves and activating one or more second valves that generate a second flow which is reversed from the first flow wherein a processor is in data communication with a solution delivery sub-system, a carrier sub-system, and a housing assembly to control the placing of the substrate, wherein a memory is in data communication with said processor, wherein said memory stores computer-readable instructions to be operated on by said processor, said computer-readable instructions including a first set of code to control said carrier sub-system and place said substrate in said tank and a second set of code to control said solution delivery sub-system.