US Patent Issued to Applied Materials on July 1 for "Electroplating co-planarity improvement by die shielding" (Montana Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,344,955, issued on July 1, was assigned to Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).

"Electroplating co-planarity improvement by die shielding" was invented by Charles Sharbono (Whitefish, Mont.), Paul R. McHugh (Kalispell, Mont.), Gregory J. Wilson (Kalispell, Mont.), John L. Klocke (Kalispell, Mont.) and Nolan L. Zimmerman (Kalispell, Mont.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Exemplary electroplating systems may include a vessel. The systems may include a paddle disposed within the vessel. The paddle may be characterized by a first surface and a second surface. The first surface of the paddle may be include a plurality of ribs that exten...