ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,317,498, issued on May 27.
"Microelectronic devices including staircase structures" was invented by Shuangqiang Luo (Boise, Idaho) and Nancy M. Lomeli (Boise, Idaho).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A microelectronic device comprises a stack structure, a stadium structure within the stack structure, a source tier underlying the stack structure, and a masking structure. The stack structure has tiers each comprising a conductive structure and an insulating structure. The stadium structure comprises a forward staircase structure, a reverse staircase structure, and a central region horizontally interposed between the forward staircase structure...