ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,317,492, issued on May 27, was assigned to SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS Co. Ltd. (South Korea).

"Three-dimensional semiconductor memory device with increased process margin" was invented by Chang-Sup Lee (Hwaseong-si, South Korea), Sung-Hun Lee (Yongin-si, South Korea), Joonhee Lee (Seongnam-si, South Korea) and Seong Soon Cho (Suwon-si, South Korea).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A three-dimensional semiconductor memory device includes a substrate including a cell array region and a connection region and an electrode structure including first and second electrodes alternatingly and vertically stacked on the substrate and having a stair-step struc...