CSEAC 2026 Post-Show Review: Three Shifts in Megasonic "Core Components" Seen Across 1,300+ Exhibitors

1. On the Floor: Both Scale and Agenda Are Moving Toward the Front End

CSEAC 2026 was held from August 31 to September 2, 2026 at the Wuxi Taihu International Expo Center, under the theme "Build a Strong China Chip, Embrace the Chip World". Official figures put the planned exhibition area at more than 70,000 m², up about 16.7% on the previous edition, with 1,300+ domestic and international exhibitors and more than 20 concurrent forums covering wafer fabrication equipment, packaging and test equipment, core components and key materials[1][2]. HaKeDi Megasonic Technology (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd. exhibited at booth A6-770, where most visitors arrived with specific process questions in hand.

CSEAC 2026 information — Wuxi Taihu International Expo Center, August 31 to September 2, 2026, HaKeDi booth A6-770

2. Shift One: Cleaning Stands Alone on the Agenda, and "Core Components" Get Their Own Forum

Six parallel seminars were held at this year's show, focused respectively on etching, thin-film deposition, cleaning, bonding, metrology, and AI and electronics manufacturing equipment — cleaning was one of them. A separate "Semiconductor Equipment Platformization and Core Parts Collaboration Forum" was also scheduled[2]. The fact that cleaning and core components were each given their own slot shows they are now engineering problems that equipment makers and fabs must solve together, rather than accessories to a process line.

Behind this lies a change in the scale of contamination: as processes move to 2 nm and below, the particles that must be removed have been pushed into the nanometre range, the number of cleaning steps keeps rising, and any single cleaning failure feeds straight into yield. Cleaning also takes place inside a controlled cleanroom classified under ISO 14644-1, which classifies air cleanliness by airborne particle concentration at threshold sizes of 0.1 µm to 5 µm[3]. A controlled environment and controlled media are prerequisites for a reproducible cleaning result.

3. Shift Two: From "Delivering Power" to "Power You Can Trace, Status You Can Check"

Mechanism first. A visualisation study published in Applied Physics Letters gave a fairly clear answer: what actually detaches microparticles from a solid surface are microbubbles oscillating close to the substrate, exerting interfacial and pressure-gradient forces on the particles, while other pressure and streaming effects are too weak on their own to remove them[5]. The practical implication for selection is direct: instead of pushing for more output power, keep the transducer operating at a stable resonance point.

That changes what is measured at the generator level: can it hold constant power, track the resonance frequency in real time, and hand its running status over to the line and host system?

4. Shift Three: From "Clean Enough" to "Clean Without Damaging Features"

Once megasonic energy concentrates too much in one spot, what gets damaged is usually not the particle but the patterned structures on the wafer — so this layer has to be judged on both removal capability and damage risk. The equipment manual's qualitative comparison of technology routes is:

Note: the table above is the equipment manual's qualitative comparison, used to illustrate differences between technology routes; it is not a commitment of absolute zero damage.

Two engineering approaches follow: first, swept-frequency drive avoids fixed-frequency standing-wave nodes so the standing-wave position moves periodically and uniformity improves; second, intelligent resonance-frequency search raises transducer matching accuracy. For fragile structures such as MEMS, multi-frequency combinations covering different scales are far more common in practice than brute force at a single high power.

Other frequency counts and target frequencies can be customized for the application.

5. Back to Selection: Five Checks on the Generator Side

If the field problem is unstable cleaning after load or temperature changes, verify constant power output and frequency tracking (PLL) capability first, rather than adding power;

If the problem is inconsistent results across positions on the same batch, verify whether swept-frequency drive and resonance-frequency search are supported;

If the target is fragile structures such as MEMS, do not look only at single-frequency power ratings — first confirm whether multi-frequency combinations can be customized for the application;

If the generator must connect to a tool or a production-line system, verify RS485 MODBUS RTU, 24 VDC external remote start and local display;

If the context is post-ball-mount cleaning for advanced packaging, megasonic frequency is typically 1 MHz or higher, and ultrapure water specifications must be checked at the same time[4].

On that last point: SEMI's F61, F63 and F75 guides cover the design and operation, water quality requirements and quality monitoring of ultrapure water (UPW) systems in semiconductor manufacturing. UPW is used in essentially all wet processes, including wafer rinsing, and its purity directly affects device manufacturing[4]. In other words, megasonic cleanliness depends not only on acoustic parameters — media quality is a prerequisite as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: How do megasonic cleaning and ultrasonic cleaning differ?

Mainly in frequency and the scale at which they act. Megasonic operates at around the 1 MHz order, where particle removal relies more on nanoscale cavitation bubbles and microstreaming — a comparatively gentle action suited to submicron and nanoscale particles. Ultrasonic typically operates at tens of kHz, with stronger cavitation: efficient on large particles and process soils, but with higher risk of damaging fine patterns and fragile structures.

Q2: Which parameters matter most when choosing a megasonic generator?

Start with whether frequency and power fall inside the process window, then look at three capabilities that are easy to miss: constant-power output accuracy (can it hold the set power when the load changes), the frequency tracking method (is it closed-loop PLL), and the communication and remote-control interfaces (RS485, Ethernet, IO). These three decide whether the equipment is merely "usable" or "reliably usable" on a production line.

Q3: Why is 1 MHz or higher often mentioned for advanced packaging cleaning?

Because after ball mounting and bonding the surface carries both submicron particles and fine structures, and the high-frequency band removes small particles at lower damage risk. Ultrapure water specifications must be checked alongside it — in post-ball-mount cleaning for advanced packaging, UPW conductivity is typically required to be below 0.1 µS/cm. Frequency and water quality need to be verified together; checking only one is incomplete.