The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 08, 2021
Filed:
Sep. 19, 2019
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Kyeong Tae Lee, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Sang Wook Kim, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Daehee Weon, Cupertino, CA (US);
Sang-jun Choi, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Sreekar Bhaviripudi, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Jahyong Kuh, San Jose, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A layer stack over a substrate is etched using a photoresist pattern deposited on the layer stack as a first mask. The photoresist pattern is in-situ cured using plasma. At least a portion of the photoresist pattern can be modified by curing. In one embodiment, silicon by-products are formed on the photoresist pattern from the plasma. In another embodiment, a carbon from the plasma is embedded into the photoresist pattern. In yet another embodiment, the plasma produces an ultraviolet light to cure the photoresist pattern. The cured photoresist pattern is slimmed. The layer stack is etched using the slimmed photoresist pattern as a second mask.