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:
May. 31, 2016
Filed:
Jan. 12, 2009
Tsu-jae King Liu, Fremont, CA (US);
Tsu-Jae King Liu, Fremont, CA (US);
Synopsys, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of performing a timed etch of a material to a precise depth is provided. In this method, ion implantation of the material is performed before the timed etch. This ion implantation process substantially enhances the etch rate of the material within a precisely controlled depth range corresponding to the range of implantation-induced damage. By using the ion implantation, the variation in vertical etch depth can be reduced by a factor approximately equal to the etch rate of the damaged material divided by the etch rate of the undamaged material. The vertical etch depth can be used to provide a vertical dimension of a non-planar semiconductor device. Minimizing vertical device dimension variations on a wafer can reduce device and circuit performance variations, which is highly desirable.