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:
Jul. 27, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 28, 2001
Richard D. Holscher, Boise, ID (US);
Ziad R. Hatab, Boise, ID (US);
David Q. Wright, Boise, ID (US);
Micron Technology, Inc., Boise, ID (US);
Abstract
A method and system for protecting global alignment marks during the fabrication of wafers are described. A semiconductor wafer-in-process includes a substrate having one or more global alignment sites, each site having an alignment mark. A photoresist material is deposited over the wafer-in-process, including over the alignment marks. A stepper or other suitable device exposes full field images over the entire wafer-in-process, thus exposing a portion of the photoresist material covering the alignment marks which is developed. A globule of protective material is deposited over the patterned photoresist over the alignment marks, thus protecting them during a subsequent etching step. The globule of protective material can also be deposited over a portion of any other adjacent structures which need protection during etching.