[May 24, 2013] Spansion Assigned Patent for Method and Apparatus for Protection Against Process-induced Charging Tweet (Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) By Targeted News Service ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 24 - Spansion, Sunnyvale, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,445,966) developed by nine co-inventors for a "method and apparatus for protection against process-induced charging." The co-inventors are David M. Rogers, Sunnyvale, Calif., Mimi X. Qian, Campbell, Calif., Kwadwo A. Appiah, Newark, Calif., Mark Randolph, San Jose, Calif., Michael A. VanBuskirk, Saratoga, Calif., Tazrien Kamal, San Jose, Calif., Hiroyuki Kinoshita, San Jose, Calif., Yi He, Fremont, Calif., and Wei Zheng, Santa Clara, Calif. The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A semiconductor device (400) for improved charge dissipation protection includes a substrate (426), a layer of semiconductive or conductive material (406), one or more thin film devices (408) and a charge passage device (414). The thin film devices (408) are connected to the semiconductive or conductive layer (406) and the charge passage device (414) is coupled to the thin film devices (408) and to the substrate (426) and provides a connection from the thin film devices (408) to the substrate (426) to dissipate charge from the semiconductive/conductive layer (406) to the substrate (426)." The patent application was filed on Dec. 20, 2006 (11/614,053). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,445,966.PN.&OS=PN/8,445,966&RS=PN/8,445,966 Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar. KS0524AK0524-880980 (c) 2013 Targeted News Service [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]