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. 24, 2015
Filed:
Apr. 04, 2014
David A. Markle, Saratoga, CA (US);
John S. Petersen, Austin, TX (US);
David A. Markle, Saratoga, CA (US);
John S. Petersen, Austin, TX (US);
Periodic Structures, Inc., Los Gatos, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods of and apparatus for performing direct-write lithography in a two-color photoresist layer are disclosed. The method includes exposing the two-color photoresist layer with transducer and inhibition images that respectively define bright spots and dark spots. The transducer image generates excited-state photo-molecules while the inhibition image converts the exited-state photo-molecules to an unexcited state that is not susceptible to conversion to an irreversible exposed state. The dark spots and bright spots are aligned, with the dark spots being smaller than the bright spots so that a portion of the excited-state photo-molecules adjacent the periphery of the bright spots absorb the inhibition radiation and transition to the unexcited state while a portion of the excited photo-molecules at the center of bright spots are not exposed to the inhibition light and transition to an irreversible exposed state. This forms in the two-color photoresist layer a pattern of sub-resolution photoresist pixels.