US Patent Issued to TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING on Aug. 18 for "Apparatuses and methods for reducing particle contamination of wafers during transfer" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,710,702, issued on Aug. 18, was assigned to TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Apparatuses and methods for reducing particle contamination of wafers during transfer" was invented by Zheng-Hao Zhang (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Hsin Yi Tseng (New Taipei, Taiwan), Chueh-Chi Kuo (Kaohsiung, Taiwan), Li-Jui Chen (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Heng-Hsin Liu (New Taipei, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A load-lock chamber with reduced particle contamination is disclosed. At least one movable particle shield is placed between the gate valve and a wafer location. Particles which can be generated due to contact between the gat...