MARK DANIEL THOMPSON
Pilots at Myra Ct, Austin, TX

2008009, Apr 17, 2008

Oct 2, 2006

11/537894

Rudolf Schlangen - Berlin, DE
Uwe Jurgen Kerst - Berlin, DE
Peter Sadewater - Berlin, DE
Mark A. Thompson - Austin TX, US

Credence Systems Corporation - Milpitas CA

H01L 21/44

438599, 438597

An apparatus and method for forming a contact to silicide through an active diffusion region, a contact to a contact through an active diffusion region, and a contact to a polysilicon structure through a shallow trench isolation region to create a conductive connection with a circuit node of interest. In one embodiment, an opening through the active diffusion region to an associated silicide layer is used to form the conductive connection. In another embodiment, an opening through the active diffusion region to an associated contact is used to form the conductive connection. In yet another embodiment, an opening through a shallow trench isolation region to a polysilicon structure is used to form the conductive connection.

7115426, Oct 3, 2006

Jan 7, 2005

11/031423

Erwan Le Roy - Newark CA, US
Patricia Le Coupanec - Newark CA, US
Theodore R. Lundquist - Dublin CA, US
William B. Thompson - Los Altos CA, US
Mark A. Thompson - Austin TX, US
Lokesh Johri - San Jose CA, US

Credence Systems Corporation - Milpitas CA

H01L 21/66

438 16, 438 5, 438 14, 438700, 438712, 438FOR 117

A method for utilizing interference fringe patterns generated when milling a trench through a semiconductor substrate by a method such as FIB milling, to determine and optimize the thickness uniformity of the trench bottom. The interference fringes may be mapped and the mapping used to direct the FIB milling to those regions which are thicker to correct observed non-uniformities in the trench floor thickness by varying the pixel dwell time across the milled area. The interference fringe mapping may be used to develop computerized contour lines to automate the pixel dwell time variations as described above, for correcting non-uniformities in the trench floor thickness. The method may be applied to applications other than trench formation for backside editing, such as monitoring progress in forming a milled object.

6855622, Feb 15, 2005

May 30, 2002

10/160606

Erwan Le Roy - San Jose CA, US
Mark A. Thompson - Austin TX, US

NPTest, LLC - San Jose CA

H01L021/425

438513, 438514, 438515, 438519, 438524

Apparatus and method for exposing a selected feature of an integrated circuit device such as a selected portion of the metallization layer, from the backside of the integrated circuit substrate without disturbing adjacent features of the device such as the active semiconductor regions. This is performed using an FIB (focused ion beam) etching process in conjunction with observation by an optical microscope to form a trench through the substrate. The floor of the trench is formed so as to be as smooth and planar as possible, thereby preventing undesirable exposure of the underlying active regions through any unknown or undesired cavity caused by scratches or pits or a deeper than desired sidewall. The smoothness and planarity of the floor of the trench is established by, prior to forming the trench, removing any surface defect initially present by using an FIB etching without use of assist gas to eliminate most scratches or impurities on the surface of the silicon, followed by removal of implanted ions using a gas-injected assisted FIB etch. Then the actual trench is formed using an assisted etch using a more aggressive injected gas.

7786436, Aug 31, 2010

Dec 21, 2007

12/005086

Theodore R. Lundquist - Milpitas CA, US
Ketan Shah - Cupertino CA, US
Mark A. Thompson - Austin TX, US

DCG Systems, Inc. - Fremont CA

G01R 31/304

250309, 324751

An improved method, apparatus, and control/guiding software for localizing, characterizing, and correcting defects in integrated circuits, particularly open or resistive contact/via defects and metal bridging defects, using FIB technology. An apparatus for identifying an abnormal discontinuity in a contact/via in an integrated circuit comprising a focused ion beam system to scan the ion beam over the contact/via to do remove or deposit via material, a detector to collect a secondary particle signal from the contact/via material that gets removed, a sub-system for storing the secondary particle signal from the contact/via in time as well as x-y scan position, a sub-system for correlating secondary particle signals and identifying discontinuities in the correlated secondary particle signals, a sub-system for optimizing the display of the abnormal discontinuity; and a computer to implement software aspects of the system.