Patent ID: 7165563

Claim:
A wafer cleaning apparatus, comprising: a tank having an interior defined by enclosing walls, a top, and a bottom, the tank being configured to contain a liquid and a gas region overlying the liquid; a wafer support disposed within the tank, the wafer support configured to support a wafer; a transducer disposed within the tank, the transducer configured to transfer an acoustic energy to the liquid to be contained within the tank, the transducer being capable of inducing a cavitation within the liquid to be contained within the tank; a gas line penetrating to the gas region within the tank; a vacuum line penetrating to the gas region within the tank, wherein the vacuum line is separate from the gas line, the vacuum line and gas line configured to simultaneously access the gas region such that gas can be removed from the gas region through the vacuum line at the same time gas is supplied through the gas line to the gas region; and a pressurization source configured to supply gas through the gas line to the gas region overlying the liquid within the tank, the pressurization source configured to control the cavitation within the liquid by controlling a gas pressure within the gas region overlying the liquid.