US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on Dec. 23 for "Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,506,012, issued on Dec. 23, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus" was invented by Koji Kagawa (Kumamoto, Japan) and Koukichi Hiroshiro (Kumamoto, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A substrate processing method includes (A) to (C) described below. (A) A substrate having a surface in which a SiO film and a Low-k film or a SiN film are exposed is preprared. The Low-k film or the SiN film is exposed to oxygen plasma. (B) A protective film is formed on the Low-k film or the SiN film by supplying an organic compound (self-assembled monolayer (SAM) material) configured t...