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:
Jan. 20, 2026
Filed:
Jul. 28, 2023
Applicant:
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsinchu, TW;
Inventors:
Assignee:
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsinchu, TW;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/768 (2006.01); H01L 23/528 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/76804 (2013.01); H01L 21/76825 (2013.01); H01L 21/76877 (2013.01); H01L 23/5283 (2013.01);
Abstract
Small sized and closely pitched features can be formed by patterning a layer to have holes therein and then expanding the layer so that the holes shrink. If the expansion is sufficient to pinch off the respective holes, multiple holes can be formed from one larger hole. Holes smaller and of closer pitch than practical or possible may be obtained in this way. One process for expanding the layer includes implanting a dopant species having a larger average atomic spacing than does the material of the layer.