Marangoni drying: A new extremely clean drying process

In a new drying process (referred to as Marangoni drying), the substrate to be dried is withdrawn from a rinse bath (water) while at the same time nitrogen gas with a trace of an organic vapor is led along its surface. The organic vapor dissolves into water and introduces a surface tension gradient in the wetting film on the substrate, causing the water film to quickly drain backwards into the rinse batch (a Marangoni effect). As a result, a completely dry substrate emerges from the bath. Contrary to spin drying, almost no contamination is added to the substrate surface during drying