Patents by Inventor William Joseph Surovic

William Joseph Surovic 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).

  • Indirect endpoint detection by chemical reaction and chemiluminescence
    Patent number: 6440263
    Abstract: Detection of the endpoint for removal of a target film overlying a stopping film by removing the target film with a process that selectively generates a chemical reaction product (for example ammonia when polishing a wafer with a nitride film in a slurry containing KOH) with one of the stopping film and the target film, converting the chemical reaction product to a separate product, producing excited molecules from the separate product, and monitoring the level of light emitted from the excited molecules as the target film is removed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2002
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Leping Li, James Albert Gilhooly, Clifford Owen Morgan, III, William Joseph Surovic, Cong Wei
  • Indirect endpoint detection by chemical reaction and chemiluminescence
    Patent number: 6126848
    Abstract: Detection of the endpoint for removal of a target film overlying a stopping film by removing the target film with a process that selectively generates a chemical reaction product (for example ammonia when polishing a wafer with a nitride film in a slurry containing KOH) with one of the stopping film and the target film, converting the chemical reaction product to a separate product, producing excited molecules from the separate product, and monitoring the level of light emitted from the excited molecules as the target film is removed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2000
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Leping Li, James Albert Gilhooly, Clifford Owen Morgan, III, William Joseph Surovic, Cong Wei
  • Rotary signal coupling for chemical mechanical polishing endpoint detection with a westech tool
    Patent number: 5663637
    Abstract: Rotary signal coupling in in-situ monitoring of a chemical-mechanical polishing process. A sensor fixed to a rotatable wafer carrier for creating a signal responsive to the chemical mechanical polishing process is coupled to a bottom half of a rotary transformer fixed to a rotating portion of the polisher. A top half of the rotary transformer, coupled to the bottom half of the rotary transformer, is fixed to a stationary portion of the polisher. The signal from the sensor is thus coupled through the rotary transformer to a process monitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 1996
    Date of Patent: September 2, 1997
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Leping Li, Steven George Barbee, Gary Richard Doyle, Arnold Halperin, Kevin L. Holland, Francis Walter Kazak, Robert B. Lipori, Anne Elizabeth McGuire, Rock Nadeau, William Joseph Surovic