Abstract: An apparatus to produce acoustic cavitation by controlling cavitation events in a liquid insonification medium utilizing a waveform to excite a transducer with a series of bipolar inharmonic tone bursts having medium recovery intervals between respective bursts so that the medium repeatedly recovers from cavitation events between bursts. The apparatus may be used to clean a semiconductor wafer, to de-coat a painted surface having, to induce a chemical reaction, and/or to provide recycled paper made from inked paper de-inked by cavitation. Cavitation events are generated using a transducer and a waveform generator, e.g., square wave tone bursts, to excite the transducer with a signal controlled in frequency, burst repetition rate, duty-cycle and/or amplitude, e.g., utilizing bursts having a frequency between 500 KHz and 10 MHz, and a duty cycle between 0.1% and 70%.

Abstract: Acoustic coaxing induced microcavitation (ACIM) for controlling the onset, evolution, and/or intensity of microcavitation events in a liquid or fluid medium to perform nanometer or micrometer particle detection in ultrapure liquids, sub-micron particle removal for precision cleaning of semiconductor wafers, deinking of paper or pulp, thin film removal from substrates, depainting substrates or panels, destructive and nondestructive measuring and testing of thin films, sculpting or erosion of surfaces, or control or acceleration of liquid-based chemical reactions. Instead of using a pair of sinusoidally excited, acoustically focused transducers operating at different fundamental resonance frequencies, ACIM events are instead generated using a single transducer and a waveform generator, e.g.