The semiconductor industry stands apart from everything else in the need for high-performance cleaning. During the semiconductor manufacturing process, layers of silicone conductors and insulators are deposited upon a wafer substrate. Each layer may be just a few molecules thick. To have any contamination on any layer would destabilize the semiconducting "tunneling" phonomenon, requiring the wafer to be scrapped.

Similar problems are found during the manufacture of today's high-performance disk drives. First, the platters and heads must be brilliantly clean, down to the sub-micron level. Secondly, they require very specialized lubricants to be applied evenly across the surface of the platter. In this microscopic world, this is the ultimate in process control. When engineers need real precision, they turn to Vertrel^® specialty fluids to get it done.

Vertrel^® has few competitors in this rarified world. Even though semiconductor makers are quite comfortable using some of the strongest, nastiest chemicals in industry -- such as acid-baths -- their other solvent choices have been pretty much eliminated. Some aqueous systems are used, but their throughput is slow. HCFC solvents used to be common, but the most popular chemistry is being phased out at the end of 2002. The brominated solvents have significant toxicity, handling and environmental problems. The old style chlorinated solvents are not usually considered viable choices due to their toxicity and environmental problems. The "last man standing" is Vertrel^®.

Disk drives need an ultra-fine layer of lubrication on the platter to prevent "head crashes." The Vertrel^® solvents from DuPont help in two ways: they get the platters cleaner, and they can carry and disperse the lubricant evenly across the surface, while reducing manufacturing costs.

Powerful, fast-drying, residue free Vertrel^® addresses all of these issues. The Vertrel^® products are very dense, so they lift away inorganic contamination and dissolve the organics. The Vertrel^® cleaners also have a much lower surface tension than water and they evaporate quickly, easily, even from deep inside oxygen systems.

Cleaning with Vertrel^® is simple, fast and very cost-effective. When quality counts, semiconductor makers and disk drive makers select Vertrel^®!

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All of the semiconductor applications have been developed under non-disclosure agreements, so there are few case studies which can be shared.

• Disk Drives Keep Spinning With Vertrel^®-- Today's high-density disk drives store gigabytes of data without breaking into a sweat; a feat considered impossible just a decade ago. Reliability and durability come from precision cleaning with Vertrel^®.

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