ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,526,990, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).
"Metal hardmasks" was invented by Alec Dorfner (Fort Ann, N.Y.) and Minjoon Park (Watervliet, N.Y.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for forming a semiconductor device includes forming a first metal layer on top of an amorphous mask layer disposed over a substrate, forming a second metal layer that covers vertical sidewalls of openings in the amorphous mask layer, and etching a pattern in the substrate using the first metal layer and the second metal layer as an etch mask."
The patent was filed on June 3, 2022, under Application No. 17/831,695.
*For further ...