US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on Dec. 9 for "Method to selectively etch silicon nitride to silicon oxide using surface alkylation" (Texas Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,494,375, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Method to selectively etch silicon nitride to silicon oxide using surface alkylation" was invented by Paul Abel (Austin, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Embodiments of processes and methods that provide selective etching of silicon nitride are disclosed herein. More specifically, new processes, methods and etch chemistries are provided to selectively etch silicon nitride layers formed on a substrate, while protecting silicon oxide layers formed on the same substrate. In the method embodiments, a substrate having a silicon nitride (SiN) layer and a silicon oxide ...