ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,249,528, issued on March 11, was assigned to PHOTRONICS INC. (Brookfield, Conn.).
"Pellicle removal tool" was invented by Hilario Ar-Miguel Alvarez (Flower Mound, Texas), Spencer Allen Mullens (Denison, Texas) and Jesse Eugene Williams II (McKinney, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pellicle removal tool including a stage that holds a photomask and an associated pellicle, two or more arms positioned around the stage and configured to engage pellicle side wells of the pellicle, and two or more actuators each configured to adjust at least a vertical position of a corresponding one of the two or more arms so as to apply a lifting forc...