US Patent Issued to Tokyo Electron on May 13 for "Heat treatment apparatus and heat treatment method" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,298,668, issued on May 13, was assigned to Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Tokyo).

"Heat treatment apparatus and heat treatment method" was invented by Shinichiro Kawakami (Koshi, Japan), Yohei Sano (Koshi, Japan) and Tomoya Onitsuka (Koshi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A heat treatment apparatus includes: a stage on which a substrate is placed and heated, the substrate including an exposed resist film formed on a surface of the substrate, and the exposed resist film exhibiting a change in solubility of an exposed portion or an unexposed portion in a liquid developer by reacting with water and being heated; a lifting mechanism configured to...