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:
Sep. 06, 2005
Filed:
Sep. 17, 2003
Gregory P. Schaadt, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Hongqin Shi, San Jose, CA (US);
Gregory P. Schaadt, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Hongqin Shi, San Jose, CA (US);
Reflectivity, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention teaches a method and apparatus for removing sacrificial materials in fabrications of microstructures using one or more selected spontaneous vapor phase etchants. The selected etchant is fed into an etch chamber containing the microstructure during each feeding cycle of a sequence of feeding cycles until the sacrificial material of the microstructure is exhausted through the chemical reaction between the etchant and the sacrificial material. Specifically, during a first feeding cycle, a first amount of selected spontaneous vapor phase etchant is fed into the etch chamber. At a second feeding cycle, a second amount of the etchant is fed into the etch chamber. The first amount and the second amount of the selected etchant may or may not be the same. The time duration of the feeding cycles are individually adjustable.