Patents Examined by Daborah Chacko-Davis
  • Patent number: 12287575
    Abstract: A system and method for depositing a photoresist and utilizing the photoresist are provided. In an embodiment a deposition chamber is utilized along with a first precursor material comprising carbon-carbon double bonds and a second precursor material comprising repeating units to deposit the photoresist onto a substrate. The first precursor material is turned into a plasma in a remote plasma chamber prior to being introduced into the deposition chamber. The resulting photoresist comprises a carbon backbone with carbon-carbon double bonds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Keng-Chu Lin, Joung-Wei Liou, Cheng-Han Wu, Ya Hui Chang
  • Patent number: 12287498
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a low-angle blazed grating on a semiconductor or silicon substrate, includes spin-coating the substrate with resist layer or hydrogen or polysilsesquioxane, being 100-1000 nm or few hundred nanometers thick, applying grayscale irradiation lithography exposure to the resist layer, generating a dose modulated pattern therein, varying in response to absorbed energy density from irradiation lithography exposure. The coated, irradiated substrate is developed in solution, such as TMAH or NaOH, enabling a blazed profile having structures of thickness-dependent diffusion barriers or SiO2, with 0-1000 nm height to emerge. Thermal oxidation in oxygen atmosphere at elevated temperature with the developed substrate, converts the upper silicon substrate layer into SiO2 to a depth depending on the thickness of the pattern in the resist layer above. Hydrofluoric acid fluid removes the SiO2, creating low-angle low-roughness blazed grating structure on silicon substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Assignee: Paul Scherrer Institut
    Inventors: Christian David, Vitaliy Guzenko
  • Patent number: 12287571
    Abstract: In accordance with some aspects of the present disclosure, a maskless interferometric lithography system for fabricating a three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystal using a multiple two-beam-exposures is disclosed. The system can comprise an illumination system comprising an optical arrangement operable to receive radiation from a radiation source and provide three or more tilted two-beam interference pattern exposures to be combined into a three-dimensional pattern; and a substrate operable to be supported by a substrate table, wherein the substrate comprises a photoresist formed on a top surface of the substrate and operable to receive the three-dimensional pattern and wherein means are provided to adjust the position of the substrate in all six mechanical degrees of freedom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Inventors: Steven R. J. Brueck, Alexander K. Raub
  • Patent number: 12288687
    Abstract: A method of fabricating a device is presented. The method includes forming a multilayer stack on a substrate which has a principal surface. The multilayer stack includes a supporting layer formed over the principal surface of the substrate and a photoresist layer formed on the supporting layer, patterning the multilayer stack to form at least one opening such that the photoresist layer is undercut by the supporting layer and anisotropically dry etching the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2024
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventor: Anthony Edward Megrant
  • Patent number: 12282259
    Abstract: An object is to provide a liquid chemical exhibiting excellent defect inhibitive performance even in a case of being applied to a resist process by KrF excimer laser exposure and ArF excimer laser exposure. Another object is to provide a method for analyzing a test target solution and a method for producing a liquid chemical. A liquid chemical includes an organic solvent; and metal-containing particles containing a metal atom and having a particle size of 10 to 100 nm, in which the number of the metal-containing particles contained is 1.0×10?2 to 1.0×1012 particles/cm3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2025
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsuya Kamimura
  • Patent number: 12282260
    Abstract: A method for cleaning is provided. The method includes: removing a pellicle frame from a top surface of a photomask by debonding an adhesive between the photomask and the pellicle frame, wherein a first portion of the adhesive is remained on the top surface of the photomask, and removing the first portion of the adhesive on the top surface of the photomask, including applying an alkaline solution to the top surface of the photomask, and performing a mechanical impact to the photomask.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2025
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
    Inventors: Yu-Hsin Hsu, Hao-Ming Chang, Shao-Chi Wei, Sheng-Chang Hsu, Cheng-Ming Lin
  • Patent number: 12278204
    Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for realizing a two-dimensional target lithography feature/pattern by decomposing (splitting) it into multiple unidirectional target features that, when aggregated, substantially (e.g., fully) represent the original target feature without leaving an unrepresented remainder (e.g., a whole-number quantity of unidirectional target features). The unidirectional target features may be arbitrarily grouped such that, within a grouping, all unidirectional target features share a common target width value. Where multiple such groupings are provided, individual groupings may or may not have the same common target width value. In some cases, a series of reticles is provided, each reticle having a mask pattern correlating to a grouping of unidirectional target features. Exposure of a photoresist material via the aggregated series of reticles substantially (e.g., fully) produces the original target feature/pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2025
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Charles H. Wallace, Hossam A. Abdallah, Elliot N. Tan, Swaminathan Sivakumar, Oleg Golonzka, Robert M. Bigwood
  • Patent number: 12271113
    Abstract: Method of manufacturing semiconductor device includes forming photoresist layer over substrate. Forming photoresist layer includes combining first precursor and second precursor in vapor state to form photoresist material, wherein first precursor is organometallic having formula: MaRbXc, where M at least one of Sn, Bi, Sb, In, Te, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Co, Mo, W, Al, Ga, Si, Ge, P, As, Y, La, Ce, Lu; R is substituted or unsubstituted alkyl, alkenyl, carboxylate group; X is halide or sulfonate group; and 1?a?2, b?1, c?1, and b+c?5. Second precursor is at least one of an amine, a borane, a phosphine. Forming photoresist layer includes depositing photoresist material over the substrate. The photoresist layer is selectively exposed to actinic radiation to form latent pattern, and the latent pattern is developed by applying developer to selectively exposed photoresist layer to form pattern.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Chih-Cheng Liu, Yi-Chen Kuo, Jia-Lin Wei, Ming-Hui Weng, Yen-Yu Chen, Jr-Hung Li, Yahru Cheng, Chi-Ming Yang, Tze-Liang Lee, Ching-Yu Chang
  • Patent number: 12253801
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a solution which is excellent in both the temporal stability of an organic solvent and the defect inhibition properties. Another object of the present invention is to provide a solution storage body storing the solution, an actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition containing the solution, and a pattern forming method and a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device using the solution. The solution of the present invention is a solution containing an organic solvent and a stabilizer, in which a content of the stabilizer with respect to a total mass of the solution is 0.1 to 50 mass ppm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2025
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kamimura, Satomi Takahashi, Yukihisa Kawada
  • Patent number: 12248243
    Abstract: This application relates to a method for direct growth of multilayer graphene used as a core layer of a pellicle for extreme ultraviolet lithography. This application also relates to a method for manufacturing the pellicle for extreme ultraviolet lithography by using the multilayer graphene direct growth method. The multilayer graphene direct growth method may include forming few-layer graphene on a silicon nitride substrate, forming a metal catalyst layer on the few-layer graphene, and forming an amorphous carbon layer on the metal catalyst layer. The method may also include directly growing multilayer graphene from the few-layer graphene used as a seed layer by interlayer exchange between the metal catalyst layer and the amorphous carbon layer through heat treatment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2025
    Assignee: Korea Electronics Technology Institute
    Inventors: Hyeong Keun Kim, Seul Gi Kim, Hyun Mi Kim, Hye Young Kim
  • Patent number: 12249450
    Abstract: An improved magnetic tunnel junction with two oxide interfaces on each side of a ferromagnetic layer (FML) leads to higher PMA in the FML. The novel stack structure allows improved control during oxidation of the top oxide layer. This is achieved by the use of a FML with a multiplicity of ferromagnetic sub-layers deposited in alternating sequence with one or more non-magnetic layers. The use of non-magnetic layers each with a thickness of 0.5 to 10 Angstroms and with a high resputtering rate provides a smoother FML top surface, inhibits crystallization of the FML sub-layers, and reacts with oxygen to prevent detrimental oxidation of the adjoining ferromagnetic sub-layers. The FML can function as a free or reference layer in an MTJ. In an alternative embodiment, the non-magnetic material such as Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sr, Ba, and B is embedded by co-deposition or doped in the FML layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 11, 2025
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Luc Thomas, Guenole Jan, Ru-Ying Tong
  • Patent number: 12242197
    Abstract: An apparatus and a method for effectively exhausting evaporated material are provided. In an embodiment the apparatus includes a hot plate and an exhaust hood assembly suspended over the hot plate. The exhaust hood assembly includes a trench plate, a cover plate over the trench plate and a single exhaust pipe header over and attached to a single exhaust opening of the cover plate. During operation, the exhaust hood assembly reduces the amount of condensation and also collects any remaining condensation in order to help prevent condensation from impacting further manufacturing steps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2025
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Po-Han Wang, Yu-Hsiang Hu, Hung-Jui Kuo, Chen-Hua Yu
  • Patent number: 12234369
    Abstract: Photoresist topcoat compositions, comprising: a first polymer that is aqueous base soluble and is present in an amount of from 70 to 99 wt % based on total solids of the composition; a second polymer comprising a repeat unit of general formula (IV) and a repeat unit of general formula (V): wherein: R5 independently represents H, halogen atom, C1-C3 alkyl, or C1-C3 haloalkyl; R6 represents linear, branched or cyclic C1 to C20 fluoroalkyl; R7 represents linear, branched or cyclic C1 to C20 fluoroalkyl; L3 represents a multivalent linking group; and m is an integer of from 1 to 5; wherein the second polymer is free of non-fluorinated side chains; and wherein the second polymer is present in an amount of from 1 to 30 wt % based on total solids of the composition and a solvent. The invention finds particular applicability in the manufacture of semiconductor devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: DuPont Electronic Materials International, LLC
    Inventors: Irvinder Kaur, Chunyi Wu, Joshua A. Kaitz, Mingqi Li, Doris Kang, Xisen Hou, Cong Liu
  • Patent number: 12235578
    Abstract: Organometallic solutions have been found to provide high resolution radiation based patterning using thin coatings. The patterning can involve irradiation of the coated surface with a selected pattern and developing the pattern with a developing agent to form the developed image. The patternable coatings may be susceptible to positive-tone patterning or negative-tone patterning based on the use of an organic developing agent or an aqueous acid or base developing agent. The radiation sensitive coatings can comprise a metal oxo/hydroxo network with organic ligands. A precursor solution can comprise an organic liquid and metal polynuclear oxo-hydroxo cations with organic ligands having metal carbon bonds and/or metal carboxylate bonds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Inpria Corporation
    Inventors: Stephen T. Meyers, Douglas A. Keszler, Kai Jiang, Jeremy T. Anderson, Andrew Grenville
  • Patent number: 12228857
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a solution which contains an organic solvent as a main component (content: equal to or greater than 98% by mass) and has an excellent defect inhibition ability. Another object of the present invention is to provide a solution storage body storing the solution, an actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition containing the solution, and a pattern forming method and a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device using the solution. The solution of the present invention is a solution containing at least one kind of organic solvent having a boiling point lower than 200° C. and an organic impurity having a boiling point equal to or higher than 250° C., in which a content of the organic solvent with respect to a total mass of the solution is equal to or greater than 98% by mass, and a content of the organic impurity with respect to the total mass of the solution is equal to or greater than 0.1 mass ppm and less than 100 mass ppm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2025
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsuya Kamimura
  • Patent number: 12222639
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing an extreme ultraviolet mask, including forming a multilayer Mo/Si stack including alternating Mo and Si layers over a first major surface of a mask substrate, and forming a capping layer over the multilayer Mo/Si stack. An absorber layer is formed on the capping layer, and a hard mask layer is formed over the absorber layer. The hard mask layer is patterned to form a hard mask layer pattern. The hard mask layer pattern is extended into the absorber layer to expose the capping layer and form a mask pattern. A border pattern is formed around the mask pattern. The border pattern is extended through the multilayer Mo/Si stack to expose the mask substrate and form a trench surrounding the mask pattern. A passivation layer is formed along sidewalls of the trench.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2025
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventor: Yun-Yue Lin
  • Patent number: 12222651
    Abstract: A resist underlayer film having, in particular, a high dry etching speed; the resist underlayer film formation composition; a resist pattern formation method, and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device. The resist underlay film formation composition contains: a bifunctional or higher compound having one or more disulfide bonds; a trifunctional or higher compound and/or a reaction product; and a solvent. The bifunctional or higher compound is a dicarboxylic acid containing a disulfide bond. The trifunctional or higher compound is a compound containing three or more epoxy groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2025
    Assignee: NISSAN CHEMICAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi Endo, Yuichi Goto, Yasunobu Someya, Ryuta Mizuochi, Satoshi Kamibayashi
  • Patent number: 12222654
    Abstract: A method includes illuminating radiation to a resist layer over a substrate to pattern the resist layer. The patterned resist layer is developed by using a positive tone developer. The patterned resist layer is rinsed using a basic aqueous rinse solution. A pH value of the basic aqueous rinse solution is lower than a pH value of the developer, and a rinse temperature of rinsing the patterned resist layer is in a range of about 20° C. to about 40° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2025
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ming-Hui Weng, Chen-Yu Liu, Cheng-Han Wu, Ching-Yu Chang, Chin-Hsiang Lin
  • Patent number: 12210286
    Abstract: A photoresist layer is coated over a wafer. The photoresist layer includes a metal-containing material. An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography process is performed to the photoresist layer to form a patterned photoresist. The wafer is cleaned with a cleaning fluid to remove the metal-containing material. The cleaning fluid includes a solvent having Hansen solubility parameters of delta D in a range between 13 and 25, delta P in a range between 3 and 25, and delta H in a range between 4 and 30. The solvent contains an acid with an acid dissociation constant less than 4 or a base with an acid dissociation constant greater than 9.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2025
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: An-Ren Zi, Joy Cheng, Ching-Yu Chang
  • Patent number: 12210283
    Abstract: A photoresist includes a core group that contains metal, and one or more first ligands or one or more second ligands attached to the core group. The first ligands each have a following structure: The second ligands each have a following structure: {circle around (M)} represents the core group. L? represents a chemical that includes 0-2 carbon atoms saturated by Hydrogen (H) or Fluorine (F). L represents a chemical that includes 1-6 carbon atoms saturated by H or F. L? represents a chemical that includes 1-6 carbon atoms saturated by H. L?? represents a chemical that includes 1-6 carbon atoms saturated by H or F. Linker represents a chemical that links L? and L?? together.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2025
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: An-Ren Zi, Chen-Yu Liu, Ching-Yu Chang