US Patent Issued to SK hynix on Dec. 30 for "Semiconductor memory device and manufacturing method thereof" (South Korean Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,512,364, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to SK hynix Inc. (Icheon-si, South Korea).

"Semiconductor memory device and manufacturing method thereof" was invented by Nam Jae Lee (Cheongju, South Korea).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A process of forming a 3D memory device includes forming a stacked structure with a plurality of stacked layers, etching the stacked structure to form stepped trenches each comprising a plurality of steps, forming a hard mask layer with a plurality of openings over the stepped trenches, forming a photoresist layer over the hard mask layer, and etching through the plurality of openings using the hard mask layer an...