ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,538,728, issued on Jan. 27, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).
"Etching method and etching device" was invented by Takehiko Orii (Yamanashi, Japan) and Nobuhiro Takahashi (Yamanashi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An etching method of supplying etching gases to a substrate to etch a surface of the substrate, includes a protection step of supplying amine gas to the substrate having an oxygen-containing silicon film to form a protective film for preventing etching by the etching gases on a surface of the oxygen-containing silicon film, for protecting the oxygen-containing silicon film, and a first etching step of supplying ...