Research Article Open Access

Ultrasonic and Megasonic Cleaning to Remove Nano-Dimensional Contaminants from Various Disk Drive Components

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of frequency on cleaning of various disk drive components. The disk drive components used for this study was ceramic spacer, e-coated disk separator, plastic separator and top cover. The frequency used for this study was 58 kHz, 58/132 kHz, 132 kHz, 360 kHz, 470 kHz and 1 MHz. In this study multiple extraction method was used to find the cleanability and erodability of the parts and liquid particle counter was used to measure the particle concentration in the extracted solution. The removal efficiency of various frequencies at final rinse was also studied. The result indicates that 360 kHz frequency at final rinse is optimally suited to remove sub-micron particles from variety of surfaces. The result also indicates that the removal efficiency of 360 kHz frequency at final rinse is high compared to 132 kHz and without any sonics at final rinse. Result shows that cleaning the parts with multiple frequencies gives higher cleanliness and lower erosion compared to single frequency alone.

Vetrimurugan, J. Michael Goodson, Terry Lim

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