A novel cavitation probe design and some preliminary measurements of its application to megasonic cleaning

Cavitation is an effective physical mechanism for concentrating mechanical energy. Accordingly, it has wide applications in such diverse fields as sonochemistry, in which chemical reactions are initiated or accelerated, or in the electronic component cleaning industry in which particles (and other materials) are removed from surfaces. However, devices designed to act as cavitation monitors have had little success, partly because their intrusiveness often affects the cavitation field itself. Presented here is a brief description of a unique cavitation monitor that utilizes the phenomenon of sonoluminescence as an indirect quantifier of cavitation. It appears to work efficiently over a broad range of acoustic field intensities and its application to megasonic cleaning has provided interesting and valuable insights into this technology.