Patent 7513262 was granted and assigned to Lam Research on April, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An apparatus for processing a substrate with a fluid meniscus to be applied to a surface of the substrate is provided which includes a docking surface configured to be placed adjacent to an edge of the substrate where the docking surface is in the same plane as the substrate. The docking surface provides a transition interface to allow the fluid meniscus to enter and exit the surface of the substrate.