US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on Aug. 25 for "In situ etch rate differentiation through oxidation" (New York Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,721,117, issued on Aug. 25, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"In situ etch rate differentiation through oxidation" was invented by Na Li (Albany, N.Y.), Jason Marion (Albany, N.Y.) and Yun Han (Albany, N.Y.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of etching a target material exposed on a substrate that also includes a reservation material exposed on the substrate includes exposing both the target material and the reservation material to an oxygen source to selectively form oxide on the reservation material relative to the target material, and etching the target material using an etchant gas. The oxide on the reservation mater...