US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on July 21 for "Substrate processing method" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,686,915, issued on July 21, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Substrate processing method" was invented by Atsuki Fukazawa (Tokyo) and Hiroki Maehara (Yamanashi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A substrate processing method includes step a), step b), step c), step d), step e), and step f). Step a) is a step of providing a substrate that has a pattern where a protection target film is positioned on a bottom part of the pattern. Step b) is a step of laminating a catalyst film on the protection target film. Step c) is a step of forming a protection film that supports the catalyst film from below and covers the protection ta...