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:
Oct. 14, 2025
Filed:
Jan. 21, 2022
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Paul Abel, Austin, TX (US);
Jacques Faguet, Austin, TX (US);
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present disclosure provides a hybrid atomic layer etching (ALE) process that combines a gas-phase surface modification step with a liquid-phase dissolution step for etching an exposed material on a substrate disposed within a process chamber. In the hybrid ALE process disclosed herein, a gas-phase reactant is used to modify an exposed surface of the material to create a modified surface layer, and one or more liquid-phase reactants are used to selectively dissolve the modified surface layer without dissolving the material underlying the modified surface layer. Once the modified surface layer is selectively dissolved, the substrate may be dried and the gas-phase surface modification and liquid-phase dissolution steps may be repeated for one or more ALE cycles until a desired amount of the material is etched.