Patents Represented by Attorney Konrad Raynes Victor & Mann, LLP
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Patent number: 7504006Abstract: A DC magnetron sputter reactor for sputtering deposition materials such as tantalum and tantalum nitride, for example, and its method of use, in which self-ionized plasma (SIP) sputtering and capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) sputtering are promoted, either together or alternately, in the same chamber. Also, bottom coverage may be thinned or eliminated by inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) resputtering. SIP is promoted by a small magnetron having poles of unequal magnetic strength and a high power applied to the target during sputtering. CCP is provided by a pedestal electrode which capacitively couples RF energy into a plasma. The CCP plasma is preferably enhanced by a magnetic field generated by electromagnetic coils surrounding the pedestal which act to confine the CCP plasma and increase its density.Type: GrantFiled: July 31, 2003Date of Patent: March 17, 2009Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Praburam Gopalraja, Jianming Fu, Xianmin Tang, John C. Forster, Umesh Kelkar
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Patent number: 7158857Abstract: An alignment tool, method and system are provided for aligning a cassette handler to a robot blade in a workpiece handling system, in which the tool comprises a frame or fixture adapted to be supported by the cassette handler support surface, in which the frame has one or more distance sensors positioned to measure the distance of a workpiece or robot blade from the sensor or a predetermined reference point or surface. In a preferred embodiment, the frame emulates a workpiece cassette and the distance sensors provide a numerical output of the distance to the workpiece. As explained in greater detail below, these distance measurements facilitate accurately leveling and aligning the cassette handler support surface relative to a workpiece supported by the robot blade such that when the frame is replaced by an actual workpiece cassette, the workpiece cassette will also be level and aligned with respect to the robot blade and the workpiece held by the blade.Type: GrantFiled: May 6, 2005Date of Patent: January 2, 2007Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Ronald Vern Schauer, Alan Rick Lappen, David L. Tuttle
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Patent number: 7112812Abstract: An apparatus, system and method for measuring a feature of a three-dimensional object, such as a wafer carrier, are provided. The apparatus is for use with an optical scanner and comprises a mounting structure adapted to be disposed on the scanner. The mounting structure has a calibration mark adapted to be read by the scanner and is adapted to position the object so that it is at a first pre-determined distance from the calibration mark. In one aspect of the present invention, the mounting structure further comprises an alignment surface adapted to abut the object. The alignment surface is disposed at a second pre-determined distance from the calibration mark. In another aspect of the present invention, the alignment surface is adapted to abut the object at a point spaced apart from the scanning surface.Type: GrantFiled: December 28, 2001Date of Patent: September 26, 2006Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventor: Ronald Vern Schauer
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Patent number: 7097744Abstract: In one embodiment, a target alignment surface disposed on a target support mechanically engages a darkspace shield alignment surface disposed on a darkspace shield as the target is lodged into a chamber body. The respective alignment surfaces are shaped and positioned so that the darkspace shield is physically moved to a desired aligned position as the alignment surfaces engage each other. In this manner a darkspace shield may be directly aligned to a target within a semiconductor fabrication chamber to provide a suitable darkspace gap between the target and the darkspace shield.Type: GrantFiled: June 12, 2003Date of Patent: August 29, 2006Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Alan Barry Liu, Marc O. Schweitzer, James Stephen Van Gogh, Michael Rosenstein, Jennifer L. Watia, Xinyu Zhang, Yoichiro Tanaka, John C. Forster, Anthony Chen
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Patent number: 7089782Abstract: A test station for testing polishing heads for planarizing semiconductor wafers and other substrates has a head positioning control system which can precisely position the polishing head at one of many electronically controlled positions above the test station platform. The test station may also include a lateral carriage assembly which supports the polishing head above a base plate of the station and permits the polishing head to be moved in a gliding motion above the surface of the test station test wafer. A sensor senses when the carriage of the assembly is moved from a load position. In response, the test station controller causes a vertical actuator to lift the head mount in the vertical or Z direction. In this position, there is sufficient clearance for the polishing head being carried by the carriage to slide under the head mount and into position for mounting to the head adapter.Type: GrantFiled: January 9, 2003Date of Patent: August 15, 2006Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Jian Lin, Volker Geissler, Jens-Michael Wendler
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Patent number: 7087913Abstract: Provided is an ion implanter having a deceleration lens assembly comprising a plurality of electrodes in which one or more of the apertures of the deceleration electrodes are shaped in a manner which can improve performance of the ion implanter. In one embodiment, an electrode aperture is generally elliptical in shape and conforms generally to the shape of the beam passing through the aperture. In another aspect, an axis segment extends 40% of the length of the aperture from the aperture center to an intermediate point at the end of the segment. The average width of the aperture measured at each point from the center to the intermediate point is substantially less than the maximum width of the aperture.Type: GrantFiled: October 29, 2003Date of Patent: August 8, 2006Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Richard David Goldberg, David George Armour, Christopher Burgess, Adrian J. Murrell
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Patent number: 6954711Abstract: Test substrates used to test semiconductor fabrication tools are reclaimed by reading from a database the process steps performed on each test substrate and selecting a reclamation process from a plurality of reclamation processes, for reclaiming each test substrate. Information identifying the processes performed on each test substrate and the reclamation process selected for each test substrate, may be stored in a test substrate history database. Each test substrate is sorted and placed into a group of test substrates having a common reclamation process assigned to the test substrates of the group. The bins in which the sorted test substrates are stored are each labeled with identifying information including basic or detailed information on the reclamation process selected for the test substrates stored in the bin. The information may also include a list of the test substrates stored in each bin.Type: GrantFiled: May 19, 2003Date of Patent: October 11, 2005Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Israel Beinglass, Paul V. Miller
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Patent number: 6925356Abstract: An alignment tool, method and system are provided for aligning a cassette handler to a robot blade in a workpiece handling system, in which the tool comprises a frame or fixture adapted to be supported by the cassette handler support surface, in which the frame has one or more distance sensors positioned to measure the distance of a workpiece or robot blade from the sensor or a predetermined reference point or surface. In a preferred embodiment, the frame emulates a workpiece cassette and the distance sensors provide a numerical output of the distance to the workpiece. As explained in greater detail below, these distance measurements facilitate accurately leveling and aligning the cassette handler support surface relative to a workpiece supported by the robot blade such that when the frame is replaced by an actual workpiece cassette, the workpiece cassette will also be level and aligned with respect to the robot blade and the workpiece held by the blade.Type: GrantFiled: November 25, 2002Date of Patent: August 2, 2005Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Ronald Vern Schauer, Alan Rick Lappen, David L. Tuttle
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Patent number: 6851170Abstract: A carrier alignment tool system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a tool and method of using the tool, which emulates the door of a substrate carrier having a removable door. The tool permits the alignment between a door opener mechanism and the load-port or other handler, on which a carrier is to be supported to be tested and corrected, until proper alignment is achieved prior to beginning substrate processing.Type: GrantFiled: December 14, 2001Date of Patent: February 8, 2005Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.Inventors: Alan Rick Lappen, Ronald Vern Schauer
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Patent number: 6778874Abstract: An alignment tool, method and system for aligning a cassette handler to a robot blade in a workpiece handling system so as to compensate for tilt exhibited by an elevator shaft as the cassette is elevated between various slot positions. In one embodiment, the cassette tilt angle may be measured at a first height of the cassette. After activating the elevator to raise the cassette to a second slot position, preferably near the other end of the cassette, the tilt angle of the cassette may be measured again. If the tilt angle has changed, such change has likely been induced by the elevator. The cassette tilt angle may be adjusted in accordance with the measured angle at which the elevator shaft tilts the cassette as the cassette is raised or lowered to reduce accidental breakage or damaging of wafers or other workpieces.Type: GrantFiled: December 17, 2002Date of Patent: August 17, 2004Inventor: Ronald Vern Schauer
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Patent number: 6763281Abstract: An alignment tool, method and system are provided for aligning a robot blade in a workpiece handling system, in which the tool comprises a frame or fixture adapted to be supported by a transfer chamber support surface or other support surface in the system, in which the frame has one or more non-contact distance sensors positioned to measure the distance of a workpiece or robot blade from the sensor or a predetermined reference point or surface. In one embodiment, the frame is used to align a robot blade relative to a robot support alignment surface in a robot chamber. In another embodiment, the frame emulates a workpiece cassette and the distance sensors provide an output to align the robot blade to a cassette support alignment surface. As a consequence, accidental scratching and breakage of workpieces such as semiconductor wafers and display substrates may be reduced or eliminated.Type: GrantFiled: June 13, 2001Date of Patent: July 13, 2004Assignee: Applied Materials, IncInventors: Ronald Vern Schauer, Alan Rick Lappen
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Patent number: 6754653Abstract: Provided is a method, system, program, and data structures for making data available to an application program. A result table is generated including rows corresponding to a subset of rows in a base table having data in one or more columns that satisfy a query predicate clause. The result table includes, for each row, a location identifier of the corresponding row in the base table and a column for each column in a query select list. The result table is accessed to return requested data from the base table to the application program.Type: GrantFiled: July 26, 2001Date of Patent: June 22, 2004Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Charles Roy Bonner, San Yu Phoenix, Kalpana Shyam, Julie Ann Watts
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Patent number: 6709908Abstract: Certain embodiments relate to methods for making a semiconductor device that inhibit the formation of a parasitic device. A method for making a semiconductor device includes a delimiting step and a dopant implantation step. The delimiting step partially oxidizes a single-crystal silicon layer provided on a semiconductor substrate 11 with an insulating layer therebetween to form a plurality of isolated single-crystal-silicon-layer segments 13a delimited by the insulating layer 16. In the implantation step, dopant ions 18 are implanted into the single-crystal-silicon-layer segments 13a to activate the single-crystal-silicon-layer segments 13a. In this implantation step, the dopant is implanted into the single-crystal-silicon-layer segments 13a by an implantation energy which is set so that the position of the maximum of the dopant concentration lies at bottom edges Ea and Eb of each single-crystal-silicon-layer segment 13a.Type: GrantFiled: February 23, 2001Date of Patent: March 23, 2004Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventors: Yoko Sato, Akihiko Ebina
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Patent number: 6700735Abstract: A lubricating perfluoropolyether (PFPE) composition for lubricating one or more disks in a disk drive system may be formed by providing a first component of PFPE molecules having an aggregate vapor pressure in the range of 1×10−6 to 1×10−11 atm and a second component of PFPE molecules comprising at least 5% of the total number of molecules of the first component, wherein the second component includes an aggregate vapor pressure lower than that of the first component. The first and second components are mixed together to form a homogeneous composition, which may be in the liquid form. The composition may be introduced into a reservoir in a vapor phase lubricant reservoir system in a disk drive enclosure.Type: GrantFiled: July 27, 2001Date of Patent: March 2, 2004Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Thomas A. Gregory, Owen Ralph Melroy, Timothy Martin Reith, Robert James Waltman
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Patent number: 6697969Abstract: Disclosed is a method, system, and program for diagnosing a computer over a network, such as the Internet. A program, such as an applet, is provided that executes on the computer. The program causes the computer to download at least one object from a server over the network. Performance data is determined with respect to downloading the object from the server to the computer over the network in order to diagnose performance problems with the computer. The determined performance data is then transmitted to a diagnostic system over the network.Type: GrantFiled: September 1, 1999Date of Patent: February 24, 2004Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventor: Greg Elliot Merriam
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Patent number: 6694317Abstract: A digital data processing system with improved access to information stored on a peripheral device is provided. The system has a plurality of nodes, a peripheral device, a file system and a bypass mechanism. A first node (e.g., a client node) is connected to a second node (e.g., a server node) over a first communications pathway (e.g., a network). The second node is itself connected to a peripheral device (e.g., a disk drive) over a second communications pathway. The first node, too, is connected to the peripheral device over a third communications pathway. The file system, executing on the first and second nodes, is capable of responding to access requests generated by the first node for transferring data between that node and the peripheral device, via the second node and via the first and second communications pathways. The file system also maintains administrative information pertaining to storage on the peripheral device of data designated by such requests.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: February 17, 2004Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Christopher J. Stakutis, Kevin M. Stearns
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Patent number: 6693329Abstract: A semiconductor device may include an element isolation region 14, an npn-type bipolar transistor 200, and a p-type field effect transistor 100, which are formed on a SOI substrate. The bi-polar transistor 200 and the field effect transistor 100 are formed in the same element forming region 16. An n-type body region 52a is electrically connected to an n-type collector region 230. A p-type source region 210 is electrically connected to the n-type collector region 230. A p-type drain region 130 is electrically connected to a p-type base region 220.Type: GrantFiled: January 18, 2002Date of Patent: February 17, 2004Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventor: Akihiko Ebina
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Patent number: 6690832Abstract: Provided is a method, system, program, and data structures for decompressing a compressed data stream. The compressed data stream is decoded a first time to generate multiple reentry data sets. Each reentry data set includes a pointer to a location in the data stream and decoding information that enables decoding to start from the location addressed by the pointer. The compressed data stream is then decoded from the beginning to a point preceding a location addressed by a first reentry data set. For each generated reentry data set, the location in the compressed data stream addressed by the pointer in the reentry data set is accessed. The decoding information in the reentry data set is then used to decode compressed data from the accessed location to a point preceding the location addressed by the pointer in the next reentry data set. For concatenated bit planes, the original multi-bit pixel values are reassembled in buffers and then outputted.Type: GrantFiled: October 26, 2000Date of Patent: February 10, 2004Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Joan LaVerne Mitchell, Nenad Rijavec
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Method for manufacturing non-volatile memory device and non-volatile memory and semiconductor device
Patent number: 6686211Abstract: When a non-volatile memory cell is manufactured, in order to make a semiconductor process for forming a cell transistor to conform to a ferroelectric process for forming a ferroelectric capacitor, in accordance with the present invention, when a non-volatile memory device having a ferroelectric capacitor 18 that is formed from an organic thin film 8 capable of a polarization inversion by an external electric field and provided between a lower electrode 7 and an upper electrode 9, a material solution 80 for the organic thin film 8 is coated over the lower electrode 7 using an ink jet type recording head 15, and is solidified by a heat treatment or the like to thereby form the organic thin film 8. By the manufacturing method, the film forming temperature of the organic thin film 8 becomes to be lower than 150° C.˜200° C., and therefore damages are not inflicted on the cell transistor 17, and a ferroelectric process that conforms to a semiconductor process is provided.Type: GrantFiled: October 24, 2000Date of Patent: February 3, 2004Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventor: Tsutomu Asakawa -
Patent number: 6684225Abstract: A database management system having a dropped table recovery flag. If the dropped table recovery flag is on at the time that a table is dropped, an entry will be made in a dropped table history file. The dropped table history file contains a timestamp of the time of table drop, a unique dropped table identifier, and table definition information. The system includes a command to permit the table-space of a dropped table to be restored and rolled forward to the point of the dropped table drop. The restored and rolled forward dropped table data is written to a flat file. The flat file data is loaded into a recreated table in the current table space to recover the dropped table.Type: GrantFiled: July 27, 2000Date of Patent: January 27, 2004Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Matthew Albert Huras, Dale M. McInnis, Effi Ofer, Michael J. Winer, Roger Luo Q. Zheng