Protecting the wafer surface from damage and contamination is the primary concern in a wafer fabrication facility. Silicon is essentially glass, so a dropped wafer is a broken wafer. And the microscopic scale of modern semiconductor devices means even the smallest particle of dust or dirt can destroy the circuitry.

IC manufacturers fabricate semiconductors in multi-million dollar clean rooms and all personnel wear special gowning (i.e. "bunny" suits and surgical masks and gloves) to reduce the possibility of air-borne contamination.

Robotics and automated wafer handling is employed whenever possible, but when personnel do handle and transport wafers, they use vacuum wands to actually pick up the wafers and "boats" to carry them in batches.

Even with all of these precautions, the wafers must be constantly cleaned. Since this is such a frequent and important operation, a special tool called an SRD (or Spin, Rinse and Dryer) is used. The SRD cleans the wafer with RO/DI water and dries it with UHP nitrogen.