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. 22, 1996
Filed:
Feb. 27, 1995
James C Baker, Coppell, TX (US);
Henry Trombley, Princeton, TX (US);
Scott H Prengle, Plano, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A method for fabricating a DMD spatial light modulator (10, 66) using an aluminum hard mask (40,50,80,90). The DMD superstructure (14,16) is comprised entirely of titanium tungsten (TiW), whereby the hinge (14) and beam (16) are patterned by a respective thin aluminum hard mask. A very rigid superstructure (14,16) is achieved, and the use of a sacrificial oxide hard mask is avoided. With the thin aluminum hard mask (40,80), good step coverage of subsequent layers is achieved. Relatively few semiconductor processing steps are required, with the titanium tungsten layers (32,44,72,84) being etched away with a fluorinated plasma. In one embodiment, the photoresist spacer layer (30) is never exposed to a fluorinated plasma.