US Patent Issued to Hitachi High-Tech on June 9 for "Etching method" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,652,977, issued on June 9, was assigned to Hitachi High-Tech Corp. (Tokyo).

"Etching method" was invented by Kazunori Shinoda (Tokyo), Hirotaka Hamamura (Tokyo), Kenji Maeda (Tokyo), Kenetsu Yokogawa (Tokyo), Thi-Thuy-Nga Nguyen (Aichi, Japan), Kenji Ishikawa (Aichi, Japan) and Masaru Hori (Aichi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An etching technology with high uniformity of the amount of etching and improved yields of etching treatment is provided. An etching method for etching a film layer to be treated including SiGe placed on a surface of a wafer, includes: a step of forming a reaction layer including nitrogen-hydrogen bond on a s...