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Expired European patentEurope

Sputtering process for forming aluminum layer over stepped semiconductor wafer

EP 0451571 B1 · Applicant: APPLIED MATERIALS, INC.

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Listed from its EPO record in Patent Yard's archive of European patents past their term. Its claims, description and drawings are in the EPO PDF and on Google Patents, and the Claude kit works from them.

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Why it's free to use

  • Filed March 21, 1991 and granted January 2, 1997. A European patent lasts at most 20 years from filing, so its term ended March 21, 2011.
  • A supplementary protection certificate, which can extend a medicine or crop-protection patent, adds at most five and a half years, so even that would have ended by September 21, 2016.
  • We check European rights only. A US or other national patent in its family could still be in force: check its family on Espacenet or Google Patents.
FiledMarch 21, 1991
PublishedOctober 16, 1991
GrantedJanuary 2, 1997
Term endedMarch 21, 2011
Application numberEP 91104473
Classification (CPC)H10W20/056 +2 more

Timeline

Timeline From EPO dates

1992199419961998200020022004200620082010Application filedMarch 21, 1991PublishedOct 16, 1991Patent grantedJan 2, 1997Term endedMarch 21, 2011

Sources & verification

Official EPO records

Full published documentClaims, description and drawings as a PDF.EPOEuropean Patent RegisterProcedure, status, file inspection and legal events.EPOLinked open EP data recordThe bibliographic record this page is built from.EPO

Cross-check elsewhere

Google PatentsFull text, worldwide family, citing patents and legal events.patents.google.comEspacenetNational family members and their legal status.European Patent Office

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