US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Aug. 26 for "Semiconductor processing tool and methods of operation" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,399,431, issued on Aug. 26, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Semiconductor processing tool and methods of operation" was invented by Shih-Ming Chang (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Minfeng Chen (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An illumination system includes a plurality of pixels (or spots) that are (or may be) configured in one or more polarization configuration types. The pixels of the illumination system may be configured to promote particular types of polarization (e.g., transverse electric (TE) polarization, transvers magnetic (TM) polarization) to increase pattern contrast while a...