Abstract: An improved semiconductor wafer processing system includes defect detection equipment and defect eradication equipment. The defect eradication equipment is a supercritical fluid cleaning apparatus. The defect detection equipment creates a record for each wafer indicating defect identification and characterization results at each wafer processing station. The supercritical fluid cleaning apparatus receives the defect data from the defect detection equipment and applies a defect appropriate supercritical fluid cleaning recipe based on generic cleaning recipes and/or defect specific cleaning recipes. The system further includes equipment for transferring a plurality of semiconductor wafer among a plurality of processing stations under computer control. The improved semiconductor wafer processing system produces IC test yields of the order of 68% and a defect density of 0.1 defects/cm2 for a 430 mm2 chip.