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. 28, 2015
Filed:
Jan. 13, 2014
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Srinivas D. Nemani, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Jeremiah T. Pender, San Jose, CA (US);
Qingjun Zhou, San Jose, CA (US);
Dmitry Lubomirsky, Cupertino, CA (US);
Sergey G. Belostotskiy, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods of patterning silicon nitride dielectric films are described. For example, a method of isotropically etching a dielectric film involves partially modifying exposed regions of a silicon nitride layer with an oxygen-based plasma process to provide a modified portion and an unmodified portion of the silicon nitride layer. The method also involves removing, selective to the unmodified portion, the modified portion of the silicon nitride layer with a second plasma process.