US Patent Issued to Sandisk Technologies on July 1 for "End point detection method and apparatus for anisotropic etching using variable etch gas flow" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,347,663, issued on July 1, was assigned to Sandisk Technologies Inc. (Milpitas, Calif.).

"End point detection method and apparatus for anisotropic etching using variable etch gas flow" was invented by Shoichi Murakami (Yokkaichi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An etching method includes etching a material in an etch chamber by alternating normal-flow etch steps and reduced-flow etch steps, where an etchant gas is provided at a normal flow rate into the etch chamber during the normal-flow etch steps, and the etchant gas is provided at a reduced flow rate lower than the normal flow rate into the etch chamber during the reduced-flow et...