Patents Examined by Kirsten C. Jolley
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Patent number: 8343578Abstract: A method and associated structure. A substrate is provided. The substrate has an energetically neutral corrugated surface layer. A film is formed on the corrugated surface layer. The film includes a combination of a di-block copolymer and a stiffening compound. The di-block copolymer includes lamellar microdomains of a first polymer block and lamellar microdomains of a second polymer block. The stiffening compound is dissolved within the first polymer block. At least one lamellar microdomain is removed from the film such that an oriented structure remains on the surface layer.Type: GrantFiled: October 30, 2006Date of Patent: January 1, 2013Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Ho-Cheol Kim, Charles Thomas Rettner
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Patent number: 8071157Abstract: There is disclosed a film forming method comprising continuously discharging a solution adjusted so as to spread over a substrate by a given amount to the substrate through a discharge port disposed in a nozzle, moving the nozzle and substrate with respect to each other, and holding the supplied solution onto the substrate to form a liquid film, wherein a distance h between the discharge port of the nozzle and the substrate is set to be not less than 2 mm and to be in a range less than 5×10?5 q? (mm) given with respect to a surface tension ? (N/m) of the solution, discharge speed q (m/sec) of the solution continuously discharged through the discharge port, and a constant of 5×10?5 (m·sec/N).Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 2007Date of Patent: December 6, 2011Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha ToshibaInventors: Shinichi Ito, Tatsuhiko Ema, Kei Hayasaki, Rempei Nakata, Nobuhide Yamada, Katsuya Okumura
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Patent number: 7985448Abstract: A process system includes a plurality of processing modules each processing a substrate with a process liquid. There is disposed a dispensing mechanism that dispenses the process liquid to the vertically arranged modules. The dispensing mechanism is provided with a process liquid supply source, and pumps corresponding to the respective processing modules. Each pump temporarily stores therein the process liquid which has been pressure-fed through a riser piping from the process liquid supply source by a pressing apparatus, and delivers the process liquid from an outlet. There are disposed nozzles each having a discharge port and discharging the process liquid to the corresponding processing module. Delivery pipings connecting the outlets of the pumps with the discharge ports of the corresponding nozzles have identical length to each other.Type: GrantFiled: January 20, 2010Date of Patent: July 26, 2011Assignee: Tokyo Electron LimitedInventors: Yoshio Kimura, Takahiro Okubo
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Patent number: 7981476Abstract: An apparatus for coating the outer peripheral surface 1a of a pillar structure 1 comprising a smoothing means 10 having a smoothing plate 10a and an elastic body 10b; the elastic body 10 being disposed to be contacted with the outer peripheral surface 1a of the pillar structure 1 to be coated. The coating surface of a coating material supplied to the outer peripheral surface 1a is smoothed between the outer peripheral surface 1a and the elastic body 10b. A method for coating the outer peripheral surface of a pillar structure is also provided. According to the method by using the apparatus, the occurrence of partial uncoating or peeling of the coating and occurrence of cracks in the coating portion during drying after coating can be inhibited since the coating material can be applied thinly and uniformly on the outer peripheral surface, thereby the coating surface is smoothed.Type: GrantFiled: October 21, 2003Date of Patent: July 19, 2011Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.Inventors: Takashi Noro, Takahisa Kaneko
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Patent number: 7976896Abstract: A spin chuck rotatably holds a semiconductor wafer, while resist is dropped on a surface of the semiconductor wafer through a resist application nozzle and thus applied thereon, and before the resist applied on the wafer dries, a cleaning liquid is supplied through a bevel cleaning nozzle to a portion of the wafer located at a peripheral portion thereof in a vicinity of a beveled portion to remove the resist adhering to the beveled portion. Thereafter, a film of the resist that is formed on the surface of the wafer is dried.Type: GrantFiled: October 2, 2006Date of Patent: July 12, 2011Assignee: Tokyo Electron LimitedInventors: Yoshiteru Fukuda, Nobuhiro Ogata, Takayuki Ishii, Keiji Tanouchi
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Patent number: 7972654Abstract: A planarizing coating method for filling a step between patterns formed on a board surface, includes the steps of: preparing at least two types of coating liquids different in non-volatile matter densities, first coating one of the coating liquids higher in density on the board surface, rotating the board so as to leave the one coating liquid inside the step and such that, at the same time, substantially none of the one coating liquid is left on a pattern crest of the patterns, subsequently coating another of the coating liquids lower in non-volatile matter density on the board surface, and rotating the board so that the coating liquid lower in density is left on a coating film comprising the one coating liquid higher in density and such that, at the same time, substantially none of the other coating liquid lower in density left on the pattern crest.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2007Date of Patent: July 5, 2011Assignee: Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.Inventor: Akihiko Nakamura
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Patent number: 7947325Abstract: In a flexible transfer body employing curable resin as a transfer material, thickness unevenness in a substrate and a transfer layer is reduced and the thickness of the transfer layer is made to be uniform. Liquid curable resin is coated onto a rotation center or the vicinity of the rotation center of a mold, which is a rotator having a functional form on a surface thereof. A flexible film is brought into contact with a surface of the coated curable resin in a liquid state and the curable resin is spread to the circumferential edge of the mold by a centrifugal force. And the curable resin is cured by supplying chemical or thermal energy thereto and the curable resin is separated from the mold, thereby obtaining a flexible transfer body in which the curable resin is transferred to the film.Type: GrantFiled: February 28, 2006Date of Patent: May 24, 2011Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Shozo Murata, Shinji Aoki
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Patent number: 7927657Abstract: In a liquid processing apparatus for forming a coating film on a polygonal substrate by spin coating in an ambient with a descending clean air flow, a spin chuck includes a support plate for substantially horizontally supporting the substrate thereon. Air flow control members are provided on the spin chuck such that the air flow control member being disposed adjacent to a periphery of the polygonal substrate supported on the spin chuck, wherein the air flow control member is not provided near corner portions of the substrate supported on the spin chuck. The liquid processing apparatus may includes an air flow regulation ring which is provided with an air inlet having an opening surrounding an outer periphery of the air flow control member, wherein the air inlet communicates with the exhaust unit.Type: GrantFiled: June 26, 2009Date of Patent: April 19, 2011Assignee: Tokyo Electron LimitedInventors: Shinji Kobayashi, Tetsushi Miyamoto, Masahito Hamada
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Patent number: 7923097Abstract: The invention relates to a security element for security papers, documents of value and the like having a thin-layer element (12) with color shift effect, which has a reflection layer (14), an absorber layer (18) and a spacer layer (16) disposed between reflection layer (14) and absorber layer (18). According to the invention the spacer layer (16) is formed by a printed layer having dispersion particles (20) with monomodal or oligomodal size distribution.Type: GrantFiled: August 9, 2004Date of Patent: April 12, 2011Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient GmbHInventors: Manfred Heim, Ralf Liebler, Markus Krombholz
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Patent number: 7906173Abstract: A resist coating method supplies a resist solution to substantially the center of a target substrate to be processed while rotating the target substrate at a first rotational speed, then reduces a rotational speed of the target substrate to a second rotational speed lower than the first rotational speed, reduces the rotational speed of the target substrate to a third rotational speed lower than the second rotational speed or until rotational halt to adjust the film thickness of the resist solution, and accelerates the rotation of the target substrate to a fourth rotational speed higher than the third rotational speed to spin off a residue of the resist solution.Type: GrantFiled: October 16, 2006Date of Patent: March 15, 2011Assignee: Tokyo Electron LimitedInventors: Kousuke Yoshihara, Tomohiro Iseki
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Patent number: 7879395Abstract: A method of preparing a coating solution, comprising the steps of providing a first solution comprising a lower alcohol; a polyethylene glycol; a complexing agent; and water; providing a second solution comprising a higher alcohol; and at least one metal alkoxide, wherein the metal in said at least one metal alkoxide is selected from the group consisting of zirconium, aluminium, titanium, tantalum and yttrium; forming a sol-gel solution by mixing said first and second solutions and thereby hydrolyzing said at least one metal alkoxide to a metal oxide and an alcohol; forming a concentrated solution by removing said lower alcohol and the alcohol resulting from the hydrolysis of said at least one metal alkoxide; and forming a coating solution by adding a medium alcohol to said concentrated solution.Type: GrantFiled: October 17, 2006Date of Patent: February 1, 2011Assignee: Qimonda AGInventors: Andreas Klipp, Stephan Wege, Tobias Mayer-Uhma, Cornelia Klein, Alexander Michaelis, Falko Schlenkrich
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Patent number: 7867559Abstract: This invention provides a photoresist coating liquid supplying apparatus and a photoresist coating liquid supplying method, for supplying a photoresist coating liquid having a low particle content to a photoresist coating apparatus, and a photoresist coating apparatus using such a photoresist coating liquid supplying apparatus, which can realize coating without causing significant defects in a cost-effective manner. The photoresist coating liquid supplying apparatus comprises a buffer vessel for a photoresist coating liquid, a circulation filtering apparatus for drawing a part of the coating liquid from the buffer vessel, filtering the coating liquid, and then returning the filtered coating liquid to the buffer vessel, and a pipe for supplying the coating liquid from the buffer vessel or the circulation apparatus to a coating apparatus. The photoresist coating liquid supplying method uses the photoresist coating liquid supplying apparatus.Type: GrantFiled: November 25, 2005Date of Patent: January 11, 2011Assignee: AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.Inventors: Katsuto Taniguchi, Kazuhiro Kojima, Atsuko Noya
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Patent number: 7851018Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an optical information recording medium, which forms a light-transmitting layer made of a radiation curing resin on a substrate having a signal recording layer, a liquid foundation is formed by coating the radiation curing resin in a first coating step. Next, a radiation curing resin is further coated on the foundation in a second coating step. After this, a curing step is performed. By separating the dropping and spreading of the radiation curing resin into two steps, not only the manufacturing time can be reduced, but also the volume of the used radiation curing resin can be reduced.Type: GrantFiled: January 5, 2005Date of Patent: December 14, 2010Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventor: Kazuya Hisada
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Patent number: 7846495Abstract: An inkjet head having a hydrophobic coating layer and a method of forming the hydrophobic coating layer on a surface of a nozzle plate of the inkjet head. The method includes filling a wax into a plurality of nozzles formed in the nozzle plate while coating the surface of the nozzle plate with wax, removing the wax from the surface of the nozzle plate, forming a hydrophobic coating layer on the surface of the nozzle plate, melting the wax filled in the nozzles, and removing portions of the hydrophobic coating layer covering the nozzles by discharging the melted wax through the nozzles using heat and/or pressure. Therefore, the hydrophobic coating layer is uniformly formed only on an outer surface of the nozzle plate, without forming the hydrophobic coating layer in an inner surface of the nozzles, thereby improving an ink ejecting performance of the nozzles.Type: GrantFiled: November 7, 2006Date of Patent: December 7, 2010Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., LtdInventors: Tae-woon Cha, Jae-woo Chung
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Patent number: 7829142Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for aluminiding an internal passage of a metal substrate comprising injecting a slurry composition that comprises a powder comprising aluminum, a binder selected from the group consisting of colloidal silica, an organic resin, and a combination thereof, into the internal passage; applying compressed air to the internal passage to facilitate distribution of the slurry composition throughout the internal passage; and, heat treating the slurry composition under conditions sufficient to remove volatile components from the composition, and to cause diffusion of aluminum into a surface of the internal passage.Type: GrantFiled: June 21, 2006Date of Patent: November 9, 2010Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Lawrence Bernard Kool, Michael Howard Rucker
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Patent number: 7820243Abstract: A resist coating method supplies a resist solution to substantially the center of a target substrate to be processed while rotating the target substrate at a first rotational speed, then decelerates the rotation of the substrate to a second rotational speed lower than the first rotational speed, or until rotational halt, makes the deceleration smaller in the deceleration step as the rotational speed becomes closer to the second rotational speed or the rotational halt, and accelerates the rotation of the substrate to a third rotational speed higher than the second rotational speed to spin off a residue of the resist solution.Type: GrantFiled: October 16, 2006Date of Patent: October 26, 2010Assignee: Tokyo Electron LimitedInventors: Kousuke Yoshihara, Tomohiro Iseki
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Patent number: 7815968Abstract: The present disclosure relates generally to semiconductor, integrated circuits, and particularly, but not by way of limitation, to centrifugal methods of filling high-aspect ratio vias and trenches with powders, pastes, suspensions of materials to act as any of a conducting, structural support, or protective member of an electronic component.Type: GrantFiled: October 8, 2008Date of Patent: October 19, 2010Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Gareth Hougham, Leena Paivikki Buchwalter, Stephen L. Buchwalter, Jon Casey, Claudius Feger, Matteo Flotta, Jeffrey D. Gelmore, Kathleen C. Hinge, Anurag Jain, Sung K. Kang, John U. Knickerbocker
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Patent number: 7799368Abstract: There is disclosed a film forming method comprising continuously discharging a solution adjusted so as to spread over a substrate by a given amount to the substrate through a discharge port disposed in a nozzle, moving the nozzle and substrate with respect to each other, and holding the supplied solution onto the substrate to form a liquid film, wherein a distance h between the discharge port of the nozzle and the substrate is set to be not less than 2 mm and to be in a range less than 5×10?5 q? (mm) given with respect to a surface tension ? (N/m) of the solution, discharge speed q (m/sec) of the solution continuously discharged through the discharge port, and a constant of 5×10?5 (m·sec/N).Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 2007Date of Patent: September 21, 2010Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha ToshibaInventors: Shinichi Ito, Tatsuhiko Ema, Kei Hayasaki, Rempei Nakata, Nobuhide Yamada, Katsuya Okumura
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Patent number: 7790227Abstract: The resist coating unit (COT) has a spin chuck (41) which holds the wafer to be supplied with a resist liquid, and a process cup (50) which accommodates the spin chuck (41) and exhaustes an atmosphere around the wafer W from a bottom thereof. The process cup (50) comprises a first cup (51) with an outer circumferential wall (61a), and an airflow control member (52) laid out close to the wafer W in the first cup (51) in such a manner as to surround the wafer W. The airflow control member (52) has a vertical cross section of an approximately rectangular shape defined by the upper ring portion (62a) having a cross section of an approximately triangular shape and protruding upward, and a lower ring portion (62b) having a cross section of an approximately triangular shape and protruding downward. An exhaust passage (55) for substantially exhausting the atmosphere around the wafer W is formed between the outer circumferential wall (61a) and the airflow control member (52).Type: GrantFiled: June 25, 2009Date of Patent: September 7, 2010Assignee: Tokyo Electron LimitedInventor: Hideo Shite
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Patent number: 7781011Abstract: The invention relates to a tool for coating an optical disc, and the tool includes: a coating section for spreading coating material; a restricting section for defining a coating area; and a support section for supporting the coating section and the restricting section. The coating section and the restricting section form a material accommodating space. Also, a method for coating an optical disc by using such tool and a method for fabricating an optical disc are disclosed.Type: GrantFiled: April 13, 2008Date of Patent: August 24, 2010Assignees: Princo Corp., Princo America Corp.Inventors: Ting-Wei Yang, Chi-Pin Kuo