US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Feb. 10 for "Plasma-assisted etching of metal oxides" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,550,648, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Plasma-assisted etching of metal oxides" was invented by Chansyun David Yang (Shinchu, Taiwan), Keh-Jeng Chang (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Chan-Lon Yang (Taipei, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure describes methods and systems for plasma-assisted etching of a metal oxide. The method includes modifying a surface of the metal oxide with a first gas, removing a top portion of the metal oxide by a ligand exchange reaction, and cleaning the surface of the metal oxide with a second gas."

The patent was filed on Aug. ...