US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on May 12 for "Plasma processing method and apparatus" (Minnesota, Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,626,889, issued on May 12, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Plasma processing method and apparatus" was invented by Derek William Bassett (Austin, Texas), Jeffrey Lauerhaas (Chaska, Minn.) and Lance Van Elsen (Chaska, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An embodiment plasma processing apparatus includes a plasma generation source, a nozzle in a plasma chamber, the nozzle being able to direct plasma from the plasma generation source to a wafer that is to be processed, the plasma having the form of a plasma stream at an exit of the nozzle, an outer annulus disposed in the plasma chamber and over the wafer, the outer annulus su...