US Patent Issued to Lam Research on Sept. 16 for "Reducing intralevel capacitance in semiconductor devices" (Oregon, California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,417,943, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Lam Research Corp. (Fremont, Calif.).

"Reducing intralevel capacitance in semiconductor devices" was invented by Joseph R. Abel (West Linn, Ore.), Bart J. Van Schravendijk (Palo Alto, Calif.), Ian John Curtin (Portland, Ore.), Douglas Walter Agnew (Portland, Ore.), Dustin Zachary Austin (Tigard, Ore.) and Awnish Gupta (Hillsboro, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods of forming air gaps in hole and trench structures are disclosed. The methods may be used to form buried voids, i.e., voids for which the top is below the top of the adjacent features. The methods include inhibition of the h...