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, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 31, 2001
Applicant:
Inventor:
David B. Fenner, Westford, MA (US);
Assignee:
Epion Corporation, Billerica, MA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 2/1302 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 2/1302 ;
Abstract
A method of processing the surface of a workpiece using an adaptive gas cluster ion beam is disclosed. The invention provides a method of reducing the surface roughness and/or improving the surface smoothing of a workpiece by etching at various etch rates. The workpiece is initially processed with a gas cluster ion beam having an initial etch rate and then the beam is adjusted so that the workpiece is processed with one or more lower etch rates. The advantages are minimum required processing time, minimum remaining roughness of the final surface, and minimum material removal in order to attain a desired level of smoothness.