ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,230,505, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).
"Etching apparatus" was invented by Akihiro Tsuji (Miyagi, Japan), Masanobu Honda (Miyagi, Japan) and Hikaru Watanabe (Miyagi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus which selectively etches a first region with respect to a second region made of a material different from that of the first region. The apparatus is controlled to perform a first step for generating, in a processing container housing a workpiece to be treated, a plasma of a treatment gas from a gas supply including a fluorocarbon gas, an oxygen-containing gas, and an inert gas, and forming a ...