US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on May 13 for "Advanced load port for photolithography mask inspection tool" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,298,664, issued on May 13, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Advanced load port for photolithography mask inspection tool" was invented by Tung-Jung Chang (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Jen-Yang Chung (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Han-Lung Chang (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and a system for inspecting an extreme ultra violet mask and a mask pod for such masks is provided. An EUV mask inspection tool inspects a mask retrieved from a mask pod placed on the load port positioned exterior of the mask inspection tool. The inspection process is performed during a selected period of time. Aft...