US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Feb. 17 for "Gate profile control through sidewall protection during etching" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,557,369, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Gate profile control through sidewall protection during etching" was invented by Shih-Yao Lin (New Taipei, Taiwan), Kuei-Yu Kao (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Chih-Han Lin (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Ming-Ching Chang (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Chao-Cheng Chen (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method includes depositing a dummy gate dielectric layer over a semiconductor region, depositing a dummy gate electrode layer, and performing a first etching process. An upper portion of the dummy gate electrode layer is etched to form an upper portion ...