Patents by Inventor Akira Mutoh

Akira Mutoh has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6548228
    Abstract: After a silicon wafer is held horizontally such that a surface thereof coated with a photoresist faces upwardly, the surface of the silicon wafer is supplied with a cleaning liquid to form a puddle thereof before a developing liquid is supplied. After the puddle of the cleaning liquid is formed, the silicon wafer starts to be rotated and the developing liquid starts to be supplied to the surface of the silicon wafer. The developing liquid is supplied to the surface of the silicon wafer with the puddle of the cleaning liquid being formed thereon. Alternatively, developing liquid is supplied to the surface of the silicon wafer which is being supplied with cleaning liquid while the silicon wafer is being rotated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2003
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Akira Mutoh
  • Patent number: 6379057
    Abstract: A developing process for obtaining a resist pattern on a semiconductor wafer includes puddling a developer on a wafer and holding a wafer inclined at a predetermined tilt angle in the puddled condition and repeating alternately stoppage and slow rotation plural times. This can make the central pattern width narrower selectively simply by apparatus adjustment, in case where, otherwise the pattern width of a wafer's central portion becomes wide, thereby achieving an increased pattern uniformity of the wafer and serve as improving the performances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2002
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Akira Mutoh
  • Patent number: 6373815
    Abstract: In an optical disc, an ID field contains a plurality of address information, and is preliminarily recorded in convex and concave signals, and is composed of two sets offset by about ½ track pitch toward the internal or external track direction adjacent to the guide track, an information recording field is composed of grooves and lands oscillating at a single frequency in the radial direction, and the grooves and lands alternate in every revolution of the guide track. When w bits of information are included in one period of oscillation, an information unrecorded field between the ID field and information recording field is arranged to have a length of w/10 bits or more and/or w bits or less, and therefore, when recording continuous information data such as video data, it is possible to record continuously by generating a clock securely from the oscillating signal, and moreover, the format efficiency is improved, so that a format of a larger capacity is achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2002
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Ishida, Shin-ichi Tanaka, Akira Mutoh, Yoshinari Takemura, Shunji Ohara, Isao Satoh
  • Publication number: 20010018167
    Abstract: After a silicon wafer is held horizontally such that a surface thereof coated with a photoresist faces upwardly, the surface of the silicon wafer is supplied with a cleaning liquid to form a puddle thereof before a developing liquid is supplied. After the puddle of the cleaning liquid is formed, the silicon wafer starts to be rotated and the developing liquid starts to be supplied to the surface of the silicon wafer. The developing liquid is supplied to the surface of the silicon wafer with the puddle of the cleaning liquid being formed thereon. Alternatively, developing liquid is supplied to the surface of the silicon wafer which is being supplied with cleaning liquid while the silicon wafer is being rotated.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 29, 2001
    Publication date: August 30, 2001
    Applicant: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Akira Mutoh
  • Patent number: 6207352
    Abstract: A developing process for obtaining a resist pattern on a semiconductor wafer includes puddling a developer on a wafer and holding a wafer inclined at a predetermined tilt angle in the puddled condition and repeating alternately stoppage and slow rotation plural times. This can make the central pattern width narrower selectively simply by apparatus adjustment, in case where, otherwise the pattern width of a wafer's central portion becomes wide, thereby achieving an increased pattern uniformity of the wafer and serve as improving the performances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2001
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Akira Mutoh
  • Patent number: 6167022
    Abstract: One or more optical discs, each having a ROM field having information with a length of at least one track formed in convex and concave pit rows, and a rewritable field capable of rewriting the information with a length of at least one track, an information unrecorded field having a length of at least one track located between the ROM field and rewritable field, the rewritable field having a spiral or concentric guide track oscillating in a radial direction, the ROM field having spiral or concentric convex and concave pit rows, and at least a part field at the rewritable field side of the information unrecorded field has a transition field having a spiral or concentric guide track oscillating in the radial direction continuously or intermittently and a track pitch To of the ROM field and a track pitch Tw between grooves and lands of the rewritable field have values such that To>Tw.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2000
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Ishida, Shin-ichi Tanaka, Akira Mutoh, Yoshinari Takemura, Shunji Ohara, Isao Satoh
  • Patent number: 6137768
    Abstract: In an optical disc, an ID field contains a plurality of address information, and is preliminarily recorded in convex and concave signals, and is composed of two sets offset by about 1/2 track pitch toward the internal or external track direction adjacent to the guide track, an information recording field is composed of grooves and lands oscillating at a single frequency in the radial direction, and the grooves and lands alternate in every revolution of the guide track. When w bits of information are included in one period of oscillation, an information unrecorded field between the ID field and information recording field is arranged to have a length of w/10 bits or more and/or w bits or less, and therefore, when recording continuous information data such as video data, it is possible to record continuously by generating a clock securely from the oscillating signal, and moreover, the format efficiency is improved, so that a format of a larger capacity is achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2000
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Ishida, Shin-ichi Tanaka, Akira Mutoh, Yoshinari Takemura, Shunji Ohara, Isao Satoh
  • Patent number: 5898394
    Abstract: A code conversion method and apparatus is provided for scrambling and modulating data. The method and apparatus includes scrambling an input main data unit based on any of plural types of pseudo-random number sequences, and modulating the scrambled main data unit based on any of plural types of modulation data. An output main data unit is produced from the modulated main data unit, and a calculated value representing a difference between a number of 0 bits and a number of 1 bits included in the output main data unit is obtained. Any of the modulation data is then selected dependent upon the calculated value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 1997
    Date of Patent: April 27, 1999
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshiharu Kobayashi, Akira Mutoh, Shin-ichi Tanaka, Nobuo Akahira
  • Patent number: RE39771
    Abstract: A code conversion method and apparatus is provided for scrambling and modulating data. The method and apparatus includes scrambling an input main data unit based on any of plural types of pseudo-random number sequences, and modulating the scrambled main data unit based on any of plural types of modulation data. An output main data unit is produced from the modulated main data unit, and a calculated value representing a difference between a number of 0 bits and a number of 1 bits included in the output main data unit is obtained. Any of the modulation data is then selected dependent upon the calculated value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2007
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshiharu Kobayashi, Akira Mutoh, Shin-ichi Tanaka, Nobuo Akahira