US Patent Issued to MACRONIX INTERNATIONAL on Nov. 4 for "3D circuit structure with stairstep contact configuration" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,464,725, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to MACRONIX INTERNATIONAL Co. LTD. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"3D circuit structure with stairstep contact configuration" was invented by Meng-Yen Wu (Taichung, Taiwan) and Teng-Hao Yeh (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Circuit structures to improve manufacturing yield in complex 3D circuits have a first stack of conductors and a second stack of conductors having memory regions and contact regions. Conductors of the first stack have stepped arrangement in the contact region to provide landing areas on the conductors. Connecting circuits connect the landing areas of conductive layers in the fir...