Patents by Inventor Frank Michael Cerio

Frank Michael Cerio 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).

  • Patent number: 6719886
    Abstract: Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition (IPVD) is provided by a method of apparatus (500) particularly useful for sputtering conductive metal coating material from an annular magnetron sputtering target (10). The sputtered material is ionized in a processing space between the target (10) and a substrate (100) by generating a dense plasma in the space with energy coupled from a coil (39) located outside of the vacuum chamber (501) behind a dielectric window (33) in the chamber wall (502) at the center of the opening (421) in the sputtering target. A Faraday type shield (26) physically shields the window to prevent coating material from coating the window, while allowing the inductive coupling of energy from the coil into the processing space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2004
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: John Stephen Drewery, Glyn Reynolds, Derrek Andrew Russell, Jozef Brcka, Mirko Vukovic, Michael James Grapperhaus, Frank Michael Cerio, Jr., Bruce David Gittleman
  • Publication number: 20020104751
    Abstract: Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition (IPVD) is provided by a method of apparatus (500) particularly useful for sputtering conductive metal coating material from an annular magnetron sputtering target (10). The sputtered material is ionized in a processing space between the target (10) and a substrate (100) by generating a dense plasma in the space with energy coupled from a coil (39) located outside of the vacuum chamber (501) behind a dielectric window (33) in the chamber wall (502) at the center of the opening (421) in the sputtering target. A Faraday type shield (26) physically shields the window to prevent coating material from coating the window, while allowing the inductive coupling of energy from the coil into the processing space.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2001
    Publication date: August 8, 2002
    Inventors: John Stephen Drewery, Glyn Reynolds, Derrek Andrew Russell, Jozef Brcka, Mirko Vukovic, Michael James Grapperhaus, Frank Michael Cerio, Bruce David Gittleman
  • Patent number: 6287435
    Abstract: Ionized physical vapor deposition (IPVD) is provided by a method of apparatus for sputtering conductive metal coating material from an annular magnetron sputtering target. The sputtered material is ionized in a processing space between the target and a substrate by generating a dense plasma in the space with energy coupled from a coil located outside of the vacuum chamber behind a dielectric window in the chamber wall at the center of the opening in the sputtering target. Faraday type shields physically shield the window to prevent coating material from coating the window, while allowing the inductive coupling of energy from the coil into the processing space. The location of the coil in the plane of the target or behind the target allows the target to wafer spacing to be chosen to optimize film deposition rate and uniformity, and also provides for the advantages of a ring-shaped source without the problems associated with unwanted deposition in the opening at the target center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2001
    Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
    Inventors: John Stephen Drewery, Glyn Reynolds, Derrek Andrew Russell, Jozef Brcka, Mirko Vukovic, Michael James Grapperhaus, Frank Michael Cerio, Jr., Bruce David Gittleman