ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,635,430, issued on May 19, was assigned to Hitachi High-Tech Corp. (Tokyo).
"Plasma processing method" was invented by Miyako Matsui (Tokyo) and Kenichi Kuwahara (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A plasma processing method of forming a protective film for suppressing etching only a desired material in a pattern to etch a pattern is provided. A plasma processing method for plasma etching a film to be etched formed on a sample includes a cleaning step of cleaning a surface of the sample, a protective film forming step of selectively forming a protective film on a desired material in a pattern formed on the film to be etched, an oxidatio...