US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Feb. 24 for "Semiconductor photonics device and methods of formation" (Taiwanese, American Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,560,760, issued on Feb. 24, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Semiconductor photonics device and methods of formation" was invented by Wen-Shun Lo (Hsinchu County, Taiwan), Jing-Hwang Yang (Zhubei City, Taiwan) and Yingkit Felix Tsui (Cupertino, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A waveguide structure and an optical modulator structure of a photonic integrated circuit are formed in a dielectric region above a substrate of a semiconductor device. Openings are then formed through the dielectric region and to the substrate so that material can be removed from the substrate to form air gaps be...