US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on Aug. 5 for "Pattern formation method and photosensitive hard mask" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,379,653, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Pattern formation method and photosensitive hard mask" was invented by Hajime Nakabayashi (Nirasaki, Japan), Tomohito Yamaji (Nirasaki, Japan), Kazuki Yamada (Nirasaki, Japan) and Ryuichi Asako (Nirasaki, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pattern formation method includes: forming a photosensitive hard mask made of a transition metal oxide film on a surface of a substrate; exposing the photosensitive hard mask to EUV light in a desired pattern; causing a state change in an exposed region by heat generated during exposure; and selectively removing either a region...