ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,233,505, issued on Feb. 25, was assigned to Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).
"Polishing system with capacitive shear sensor" was invented by Nicholas A. Wiswell (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Chih Chung Chou (San Jose, Calif.) and Dominic J. Benvegnu (La Honda, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A polishing pad includes a sensor assembly surrounded by a lower portion of the polishing pad, and an upper portion including a pad portion disposed on the assembly and at least a portion of a polishing layer disposed on the lower portion. The sensor assembly includes a lower body having a first pair of electrodes formed thereon, a polymer ...