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:
Jun. 10, 2008
Filed:
Mar. 31, 2006
William Wong, San Carlos, CA (US);
Scott Limb, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Beverly Russo, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Michael Chabinyc, Burlingame, CA (US);
Rene Lujan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
William Wong, San Carlos, CA (US);
Scott Limb, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Beverly Russo, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Michael Chabinyc, Burlingame, CA (US);
Rene Lujan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
Susceptibility of darkfield etch masks (majority of the mask area is opaque) to pinhole defects, transferred pattern, non-uniformity, etc. due to ejector dropout or drop misdirection, and long duty cycles due to large-area coverage, when using digital lithography (or print patterning) is addressed by using a clear-field print pattern that is then coated with etch resist material. The printed clear field pattern is selectively removed to form an inverse pattern (darkfield) within the coated resist layer. Etching then removes selected portions of an underlying (e.g., encapsulation, conductive, etc.) layer. Removal of the mask produces a layer with large-area features with substantially reduced defects.