US Patent Issued to Applied Materials on Sept. 9 for "Endpoint optimization for semiconductor processes" (New York, Montana, Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,412,789, issued on Sept. 9, was assigned to Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).

"Endpoint optimization for semiconductor processes" was invented by Avishay Vaxman (Albany, N.Y.), Qintao Zhang (Mount Kisco, N.Y.), Jeffrey P. Koch (Austin, Texas), David P. Surdock (Kalispell, Mont.), Wayne R. Swart (Tivoli, N.Y.), David J. Lee (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), Samphy Hong (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.), Aldrin Bernard Vincent Eddy (Clifton Park, N.Y.) and Daniel G. Deyo (West Hurley, N.Y.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A camera may capture reflected light from the surface of the wafer during a semiconductor process that adds or removes material f...