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:
Nov. 25, 2008
Filed:
Feb. 24, 2003
Wu-sheng Shih, Rolla, MO (US);
James E. Lamb, Iii, Rolla, MO (US);
Juliet Ann Minzey Snook, Cook Station, MO (US);
Mark G. Daffron, Rolla, MO (US);
Wu-Sheng Shih, Rolla, MO (US);
James E. Lamb, III, Rolla, MO (US);
Juliet Ann Minzey Snook, Cook Station, MO (US);
Mark G. Daffron, Rolla, MO (US);
Brewer Science Inc., Rolla, MO (US);
Abstract
The present invention is directed towards contact planarization methods that can be used to planarize substrate surfaces having a wide range of topographic feature densities for lithography applications. These processes use thermally curable, photo-curable, or thermoplastic materials to provide globally planarized surfaces over topographic substrate surfaces for lithography applications. Additional coating(s) with global planarity and uniform thickness can be obtained on the planarized surfaces. These inventive methods can be utilized with single-layer, bilayer, or multi-layer processing involving bottom anti-reflective coatings, photoresists, hardmasks, and other organic and inorganic polymers in an appropriate coating sequence as required by the particular application. More specifically, this invention produces globally planar surfaces for use in dual damascene and bilayer processes with greatly improved photolithography process latitude. The invention further provides globally planar surfaces to transfer patterns using imprint lithography, nano-imprint lithography, hot-embossing lithography and stamping pattern transfer techniques.