SHELLBACK News
Feature Article
Ozone Doesn’t Work? You’re Doing It Wrong.
The use of ozone in semiconductor wet processing surface preparation has gained new momentum as fabs pursue advanced cleans and strip steps that reduce chemical waste without compromising performance. In theory, ozone’s oxidation potential (2.07 V) makes it one of the strongest practical oxidizers — far exceeding hydrogen peroxide or sulfuric acid blends typically used for organic removal. But in practice, its full power is fundamentally constrained because ozone decomposes rapidly in water, drastically reducing its effectiveness at the wafer surface. Why Conventional Ozone Baths Fall ShortThe HydrOzone™ process from Shellback overcomes this limitation, delivering strip rates 10 to 20 times faster than conventional dissolved ozone methods. To see why this matters, it helps to understand what happens inside a traditional ozone bath. In a dissolved ozone system, once ozone is dissolved, it immediately begins to self-destruct through a chain of ...
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