US Patent Issued to TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING on April 15 for "Methods for cleaning lithography mask" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,276,906, issued on April 15, was assigned to TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Methods for cleaning lithography mask" was invented by I-Hsiung Huang (Hsinchu County, Taiwan), Yung-Cheng Chen (Jhubei, Taiwan) and Chi-Lun Lu (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods for removing haze defects from a photomask or reticle are disclosed. The photomask is placed into a chamber which includes a hydrogen atmosphere. The photomask is then exposed to radiation. The energy from the radiation, together with the hydrogen, causes decomposition of the haze defects. The methods can be practiced on-site and q...