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. 19, 1993
Filed:
Nov. 12, 1991
Shingo Terakado, Tsukuba, JP;
Osamu Kitamura, Tsukuba, JP;
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
A dry etching method capable of performing fine patterning. A sample substrate is fixedly disposed on a table in a reactant chamber. Gas plasma produced by a gas plasma generator is introduced into the reactant chamber, and excitation light, that is, light capable of exciting inner shell electrons of constituent atoms of the substrate, is irradiated onto the substrate from above the substrate. In the optical path of the excitation light is disposed a mask. The substrate is irradiated with the light in response to a pattern designated by the mask. The excitation light has an energy for exciting electrons of constituent atoms of the substrate. Upon arrival of the light in etched regions, the electrons of the substrate are excited. As a result, etching is effected by the contact of the excited electrons with the gas plasma, and the rate of this etching is greatly enhanced. Since the electrons of the substrate in masked areas are not excited, the masked areas become hardly subjected to etching by the contact of the gas plasma, whereby the pattern of the mask is transferred to the substrate with high accuracy, whereby fine patterns are formed.