US Patent Issued to Applied Materials on May 12 for "Support layer for small pitch fill" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,628,335, issued on May 12, was assigned to Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).

"Support layer for small pitch fill" was invented by Fredrick Fishburn (Aptos, Calif.) and Sung-Kwan Kang (Santa Clara, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided is a DRAM device having a support layer to hold the bWL features before being filled with the electrode metal. The support layer keeps the structure supported from the top surface but does not prevent the gap fill. A temporary gap-fill material is first deposited in the bWL gaps and then recessed to expose the top edges. A support layer material is then deposited on the structure by plas...