A method of fabricating a microelectronic unit includes providing a semiconductor element having a front surface and a rear surface remote from the front surface, forming at least one first opening extending from the rear surface partially through the semiconductor element towards the front surface by directing a jet of fine abrasive particles towards the semiconductor element, and forming at least one conductive contact and at least one conductive interconnect coupled thereto. The semiconductor element can include a plurality of active semiconductor devices therein. The semiconductor element can include a plurality of conductive pads exposed at the front surface. Each conductive interconnect can extend within one or more of the first openings and can be coupled directly or indirectly to at least one of the conductive pads. Each of the conductive contacts can be exposed at the rear surface of the semiconductor element for electrical connection to an external device.

A method for cutting electrode foils (1) by means of a particle stream (2) is proposed. A cutting device (4) for cutting electrode foils (1) that are intended for use in a battery cell is also specified which comprises at least one nozzle (5) with an outlet (6), one cutting tool (7), one vibration device (8) for exciting at least the cutting tool (7) to vibration (14), one particle feed line (9) for supplying at least particles (13), and one gas feed line (10) for supplying a first gas stream (12), wherein the particles (13) and the first gas stream (12) can be mixed in the cutting device (4) to form a particle stream (2) and fed via the nozzle (5) to the outlet (6), wherein the cutting tool (7) and the outlet (6) can be arranged above the electrode foil (1) with separation (11) from a surface (3) of the electrode foil (1), and wherein the electrode foil (1) can be cut at least as a result of the particle stream (2) and the vibrations (14) of the cutting tool (7).

A method for separating or recovering materials from electrodes includes: providing a substrate, in particular an electrode substrate, to which a coating has been applied; and at least partially stripping the coating from the substrate by snow blasting.

An object of the present invention is to provide a dry ice cleaning apparatus for a semiconductor wafer and a method for cleaning a semiconductor wafer that can reduce the amount of particles remaining on the surface of a semiconductor wafer, suppress a decrease of cleaning effects due to ice formation, and continuously and effectively clean a large amount of semiconductor wafers. The present invention provides a dry ice cleaning apparatus for a semiconductor wafer including a cleaning chamber (1) into which the semiconductor wafers (W) are sequentially carried in and which has an internal space (11) for cleaning the semiconductor wafers (W), an inject cleaning nozzle (5) that is disposed in the internal space (11) of the cleaning chamber (1) and injects the dry ice (D) toward the cleaning surface of the semiconductor wafer (w), and a transfer robot (2) that is disposed in the internal space (11) of the cleaning chamber (1) and sequentially carries the semiconductor wafers (W) from the outside of the cleaning chamber (1) into the internal space (11); and wherein while the transfer robot (2) holding the semiconductor wafer (W) carried into the internal space (11) non-horizontally, the inject cleaning nozzle (5) injects the dry ice (D) onto the semiconductor wafer (W).