US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Dec. 2 for "Physical vapor deposition chamber with target surface morphology monitor" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,486,566, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Physical vapor deposition chamber with target surface morphology monitor" was invented by Hai-Dang Trinh (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Chii-Ming Wu (Taipei, Taiwan) and Shing-Chyang Pan (Jhudong Township, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A sputtering system includes a vacuum chamber, a power source having a pole coupled to a backing plate for holding a sputtering target within the vacuum chamber, a pedestal for holding a substrate within the vacuum chamber, and a time of flight camera positioned to scan a surface of a target held to the ba...