ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,354,880, issued on July 8, was assigned to Lam Research Corp. (Fremont, Calif.).
"High aspect ratio etch with infinite selectivity" was invented by Leonid Belau (Pleasanton, Calif.) and Eric A. Hudson (Berkeley, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided herein are methods and apparatus for processing a substrate by exposing the substrate to plasma to simultaneously (i) etch features in an underlying material (e.g., which includes one or more dielectric materials), and (ii) deposit a upper mask protector layer on a mask positioned over the dielectric material, where the upper mask protector layer forms on top of the mask in a selectiv...