US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on March 24 for "Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus for etching using oxidization" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,588,440, issued on March 24, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus for etching using oxidization" was invented by Kazumasa Igarashi (Yamanashi, Japan), Yamato Tonegawa (Yamanashi, Japan), Jun Ogawa (Yamanashi, Japan) and Yuki Tanaka (Yamanashi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A substrate processing method includes preparing a substrate having a target film including silicon, carbon, and nitrogen on a surface of the substrate; supplying hydrogen gas and oxygen gas to the target film to oxidize a surface layer of the target film and form an oxide film; and etching...