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:
Apr. 14, 2026
Filed:
Sep. 27, 2023
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Sandisk Technologies, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A method includes forming a first-tier structure over a substrate, forming first-tier trenches laterally extending along a first horizontal direction and laterally spaced apart from each other along a second horizontal direction through the first-tier structure, non-conformally depositing a plurality of material layers over the first-tier structure such that first-tier cavities are formed in volumes of the first-tier trenches that are not filled with the plurality of material layers, and inducing laterally-extending cracks in portions of the plurality of material layers that overlie the first-tier cavities, such that the laterally-extending cracks are connected to a respective underlying one of the first-tier cavities and vertically extend to a topmost material layer of the plurality of material layers.