ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,438,045, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).
"Semiconductor structure formation" was invented by Zheng-En Bao (Tainan, Taiwan), Po-Ju Chen (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Chih-Teng Liao (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Jiann-Horng Lin (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Lin-Ting Lin (Taichung, Taiwan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A recovery layer (e.g., a layer of organic and/or tin-based material) is formed within recesses, in which adjacent MEOL or BEOL structures are formed, after plasma ashing and before a trimming process. The recovery layer preserves hardmask material and dielectric material such that upper surf...