Patents by Inventor Eric Dale

Eric Dale 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).

  • Publication number: 20020117701
    Abstract: A method for fabricating integrated capacitors, of particular utility in forming a ferroelectric capacitor array for a ferroelectric memory integrated circuits, begins with provision of a substrate. The substrate is typically a partially-processed CMOS integrated circuit wafer coated with an adhesion layer. Upon the substrate is deposited a bottom electrode layer, typically of noble metal, a dielectric layer, typically doped PZT, and a top electrode layer, typically a noble metal oxide. Next is deposited a hardmask layer of strontium ruthenium oxide, followed by a photoresist layer. The photoresist layer is aligned, exposed, developed, and cured as known in the art of integrated circuit photolithography. The resulting stack is then dry etched to remove undesired portions of the hardmask layer, the top electrode layer, and the dielectric layer. A principle advantage of the process is that a single photomasking operation is sufficient to define the top electrode and dielectric layers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2001
    Publication date: August 29, 2002
    Inventors: Shan Sun, George Hickert, Diana Johnson, John Ortega, Eric Dale, Masahisa Ueda