ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,230,530, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).
"Apparatus and methods for semiconductor processing" was invented by Joseph Yudovsky (Campbell, Calif.) and Kaushal Gangakhedkar (San Jose, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Described are apparatus and methods for processing a semiconductor wafer so that the wafer remains in place during processing. The wafer is subjected to a pressure differential between the top surface and bottom surface so that sufficient force prevents the wafer from moving during processing, the pressure differential generated by applying a decreased pressure to the back s...