A totally new concept for clean surface processing of Si wafers is introduced in this book. Some fifty distinguished researchers and engineers from the leading Japanese semiconductor companies, such as NEC, Hitachi, Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic as well as from several universities reveal to us for the first time the secrets of these highly productive institutions. They describe the techniques and equipment necessary for the preparation of clean high-quality semiconductor surfaces as a first step in high-yield/high-quality device production. This book thus opens the door to the manufacturing of reliable nanoscale devices and will be extremely useful for every engineer, physicist and technician involved in the production of silicon semiconductor devices.

PHOTOVOLTAIC MANUFACTURING This book covers the state-of-the-art and the fundamentals of silicon wafer solar cells manufacturing, written by world-class researchers and experts in the field. High quality and economic photovoltaic manufacturing is central to realizing reliable photovoltaic power supplies at reasonable cost. While photovoltaic silicon wafer manufacturing is at a mature, industrial and mass production stage, knowing and applying the fundamentals in solar manufacturing is essential to anyone working in this field. This is the first book on photovoltaic wet processing for silicon wafers, both mono- and multi-crystalline. The comprehensive book provides information for process, equipment, and device engineers and researchers in the solar manufacturing field. The authors of the chapters are world-class researchers and experts in their field of endeavor. The fundamentals of wet processing chemistry are introduced, covering etching, texturing, cleaning and metrology. New developments, innovative approaches, as well as current challenges are presented. Benefits of reading the book include: The book includes a detailed discussion of the important new development of black silicon, which is considered to have started a new wave in photovoltaics and become the new standard while substantially lowering the cost. Photovoltaics are central to any country’s “New Green Deal” and this book shows how to manufacture competitively. The book’s central goal is to show photovoltaic manufacturing can be done with enhanced quality and lowering costs. Audience Engineers, chemists, physicists, process technologists, in both academia and industry, that work with photovoltaics and their manufacture.

This issue of ECS Transactions includes papers presented during the 11th International Symposium on Cleaning and Surface Conditioning Technology in Semiconductor Device Manufacturing held during the ECS Fall Meeting in Vienna, Austria, October 4-9, 2009.