US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on Jan. 20 for "Equipment and method for improved edge uniformity of plasma processing of wafers" (Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,531,205, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Equipment and method for improved edge uniformity of plasma processing of wafers" was invented by Barton Lane (Austin, Texas) and Peter Lowell George Ventzek (Austin, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "What is described is an equipment for plasma processing including: a pedestal configured to hold a wafer; concentric with the pedestal, a focus ring including an insulator, the focus ring being positioned close to an edge region of the wafer when the wafer is held on the pedestal; and a plurality of gas discharge devices embedded in the focus ring, where each gas d...