Patent 7100322 was granted and assigned to Samsung on September, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method of manufacturing an alternating phase shift mask can be carried out in a short amount of time. A 180° phase shift region is formed using a multi-step etching process, and then a 0° phase region is formed. Forming the phase shift regions in this sequence minimizes the number of rounds of photolithography that have to be carried out in the method.