Patents by Inventor Richard Hammond

Richard Hammond 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).

  • Reacted conductive gate electrodes and methods of making the same
    Patent number: 9343539
    Abstract: A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating a semiconductor device involve a semiconductor layer that includes a first material and a second material. The first and second materials can be silicon and germanium. A contact of the device has a portion proximal to the semiconductor layer and a portion distal to the semiconductor layer. The distal portion includes the first material and the second material. A metal layer formed adjacent to the relaxed semiconductor layer and adjacent to the distal portion of the contact is simultaneously reacted with the relaxed semiconductor layer and with the distal portion of the contact to provide metallic contact material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Matthew T. Currie, Richard Hammond
  • Semiconductor structures employing strained material layers with defined impurity gradients and methods for fabricating same
    Patent number: 9281376
    Abstract: Semiconductor structures and devices including strained material layers having impurity-free zones, and methods for fabricating same. Certain regions of the strained material layers are kept free of impurities that can interdiffuse from adjacent portions of the semiconductor. When impurities are present in certain regions of the strained material layers, there is degradation in device performance. By employing semiconductor structures and devices (e.g., field effect transistors or “FETs”) that have the features described, or are fabricated in accordance with the steps described, device operation is enhanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Matthew T. Currie, Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Richard Hammond, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
  • Reacted Conductive Gate Electrodes and Methods of Making the Same
    Publication number: 20150243752
    Abstract: A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating a semiconductor device involve a semiconductor layer that includes a first material and a second material. The first and second materials can be silicon and germanium. A contact of the device has a portion proximal to the semiconductor layer and a portion distal to the semiconductor layer. The distal portion includes the first material and the second material. A metal layer formed adjacent to the relaxed semiconductor layer and adjacent to the distal portion of the contact is simultaneously reacted with the relaxed semiconductor layer and with the distal portion of the contact to provide metallic contact material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2015
    Publication date: August 27, 2015
    Inventors: Matthew T. Currie, Richard Hammond
  • Methods for Forming Semiconductor Device Structures
    Publication number: 20150243788
    Abstract: The benefits of strained semiconductors are combined with silicon-on-insulator approaches to substrate and device fabrication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2015
    Publication date: August 27, 2015
    Inventors: Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Thomas A. Langdo, Richard Hammond, Matthew T. Currie, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
  • PROCESSING A NOISY ANALOGUE SIGNAL
    Publication number: 20150244403
    Abstract: A device is provided for correlating at least one noisy analogue signal which is one of a plurality of signals obtained by a plurality of receivers. The device comprises a 1-bit quantisation element to which the noisy signal is supplied; a comparator configured to compare the quantised signal with a reference signal which is a consensus signal obtained by averaging data from the plurality of receivers; and an up/down counter that is configured to be incremented by a subset of the comparison signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2013
    Publication date: August 27, 2015
    Applicant: PHASOR SOLUTIONS LIMITED
    Inventor: Richard Hammond Mayo
  • Methods for forming semiconductor device structures
    Patent number: 9064930
    Abstract: The benefits of strained semiconductors are combined with silicon-on-insulator approaches to substrate and device fabrication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Thomas A. Langdo, Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Richard Hammond, Matthew T. Currie, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
  • Reacted conductive gate electrodes and methods of making the same
    Patent number: 9048167
    Abstract: A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating a semiconductor device involve a semiconductor layer that includes a first material and a second material. The first and second materials can be silicon and germanium. A contact of the device has a portion proximal to the semiconductor layer and a portion distal to the semiconductor layer. The distal portion includes the first material and the second material. A metal layer formed adjacent to the relaxed semiconductor layer and adjacent to the distal portion of the contact is simultaneously reacted with the relaxed semiconductor layer and with the distal portion of the contact to provide metallic contact material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Matthew T. Currie, Richard Hammond
  • SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY ALIGNING A RIFLE SCOPE TO A RIFLE
    Publication number: 20150059226
    Abstract: A rifle scope includes at least one optical sensor configured to capture optical data corresponding to at least one of a barrel of a firearm and an appendage coupled to the barrel. The rifle scope further includes a controller coupled to the at least one optical sensor and configured to determine an angular position of the barrel in response to capturing the optical data. The controller is configured to automatically determine an alignment of the rifle scope relative to the barrel in response to determining the angular position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2014
    Publication date: March 5, 2015
    Applicant: TRACKINGPOINT, INC.
    Inventors: Matthew Flint Kepler, Douglas Richard Hammond
  • Reacted Conductive Gate Electrodes and Methods of Making the Same
    Publication number: 20140312389
    Abstract: A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating a semiconductor device involve a semiconductor layer that includes a first material and a second material. The first and second materials can be silicon and germanium. A contact of the device has a portion proximal to the semiconductor layer and a portion distal to the semiconductor layer. The distal portion includes the first material and the second material. A metal layer formed adjacent to the relaxed semiconductor layer and adjacent to the distal portion of the contact is simultaneously reacted with the relaxed semiconductor layer and with the distal portion of the contact to provide metallic contact material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2014
    Publication date: October 23, 2014
    Inventors: Matthew T. Currie, Richard Hammond
  • System for automatically aligning a rifle scope to a rifle
    Patent number: 8826583
    Abstract: A rifle scope includes at least one optical sensor configured to capture optical data corresponding to at least one of a barrel of a firearm and an appendage coupled to the barrel. The rifle scope further includes a controller coupled to the at least one optical sensor and configured to determine an angular position of the barrel in response to capturing the optical data. The controller is configured to automatically determine an alignment of the rifle scope relative to the barrel in response to determining the angular position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2014
    Assignee: TrackingPoint, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew Flint Kepler, Douglas Richard Hammond
  • Methods of Forming Strained-Semiconductor-on-Insulator Device Structures
    Publication number: 20140242778
    Abstract: The benefits of strained semiconductors are combined with silicon-on-insulator approaches to substrate and device fabrication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2014
    Publication date: August 28, 2014
    Applicant: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Thomas A. Langdo, Matthew T. Currie, Richard Hammond, Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
  • RF circuits including transistors having strained material layers
    Patent number: 8809835
    Abstract: Circuits for processing radio frequency (“RF”) and microwave signals are fabricated using field effect transistors (“FETs”) that have one or more strained channel layers disposed on one or more planarized substrate layers. FETs having such a configuration exhibit improved values for, for example, transconductance and noise figure. RF circuits such as, for example, voltage controlled oscillators (“VCOs”), low noise amplifiers (“LNAs”), and phase locked loops (“PLLs”) built using these FETs also exhibit enhanced performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2014
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Glyn Braithwaite, Richard Hammond, Matthew T. Currie
  • Semiconductor Structures Employing Strained Material Layers with Defined Impurity Gradients and Methods for Fabricating Same
    Publication number: 20140220755
    Abstract: Semiconductor structures and devices including strained material layers having impurity-free zones, and methods for fabricating same. Certain regions of the strained material layers are kept free of impurities that can interdiffuse from adjacent portions of the semiconductor. When impurities are present in certain regions of the strained material layers, there is degradation in device performance. By employing semiconductor structures and devices (e.g., field effect transistors or “FETs”) that have the features described, or are fabricated in accordance with the steps described, device operation is enhanced.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 9, 2014
    Publication date: August 7, 2014
    Applicant: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Matthew T. Currie, Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Richard Hammond, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
  • Reacted conductive gate electrodes and methods of making the same
    Patent number: 8785315
    Abstract: A semiconductor device and a method for fabricating a semiconductor device involve a semiconductor layer that includes a first material and a second material. The first and second materials can be silicon and germanium. A contact of the device has a portion proximal to the semiconductor layer and a portion distal to the semiconductor layer. The distal portion includes the first material and the second material. A metal layer formed adjacent to the relaxed semiconductor layer and adjacent to the distal portion of the contact is simultaneously reacted with the relaxed semiconductor layer and with the distal portion of the contact to provide metallic contact material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Matthew T. Currie, Richard Hammond
  • Methods of forming strained-semiconductor-on-insulator device structures
    Patent number: 8748292
    Abstract: The benefits of strained semiconductors are combined with silicon-on-insulator approaches to substrate and device fabrication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Thomas A. Langdo, Matthew T. Currie, Richard Hammond, Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
  • Semiconductor structures employing strained material layers with defined impurity gradients and methods for fabricating same
    Patent number: 8722495
    Abstract: Semiconductor structures and devices including strained material layers having impurity-free zones, and methods for fabricating same. Certain regions of the strained material layers are kept free of impurities that can interdiffuse from adjacent portions of the semiconductor. When impurities are present in certain regions of the strained material layers, there is degradation in device performance. By employing semiconductor structures and devices (e.g., field effect transistors or “FETs”) that have the features described, or are fabricated in accordance with the steps described, device operation is enhanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Matthew T. Currie, Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Richard Hammond, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
  • Methods for Forming Semiconductor Device Structures
    Publication number: 20140051230
    Abstract: The benefits of strained semiconductors are combined with silicon-on-insulator approaches to substrate and device fabrication.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2013
    Publication date: February 20, 2014
    Applicant: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Thomas A. Langdo, Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Richard Hammond, Matthew T. Currie, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
  • System for Automatically Aligning a Rifle Scope to a Rifle
    Publication number: 20140002812
    Abstract: A rifle scope includes at least one optical sensor configured to capture optical data corresponding to at least one of a barrel of a firearm and an appendage coupled to the barrel. The rifle scope further includes a controller coupled to the at least one optical sensor and configured to determine an angular position of the barrel in response to capturing the optical data. The controller is configured to automatically determine an alignment of the rifle scope relative to the barrel in response to determining the angular position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2012
    Publication date: January 2, 2014
    Applicant: TRACKINGPOINT, INC.
    Inventors: Matthew Flint Kepler, Douglas Richard Hammond
  • Lock Bar Spring and Clip for Implant Deployment Device
    Publication number: 20130310850
    Abstract: A system for closing an aperture in a biological tissue includes at least one clip connected to at least one frame arm and for releasably retaining a surgical implant to the frame arm. The clip includes at least one locking structure for engaging a lock bar. A portion of the lock bar selectively engages or contacts the locking structure of the at least one clip to lock the at least one clip in a closed position by inhibiting rotation of the at least one clip when the lock bar is in a locked position. The lock bar allows the at least one clip to rotate to an open position when the lock bar is in an unlocked position. Methods for utilizing the system are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2013
    Publication date: November 21, 2013
    Applicant: Covidien LP
    Inventors: Jonathan Glick, Richard Hammond, Ofek Levin, Arie Levy
  • Methods for forming semiconductor device structures
    Patent number: 8586452
    Abstract: The benefits of strained semiconductors are combined with silicon-on-insulator approaches to substrate and device fabrication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Anthony J. Lochtefeld, Thomas A. Langdo, Richard Hammond, Matthew T. Currie, Eugene A. Fitzgerald