Methods of manufacturing a semiconductor device

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising:

• providing a substrate having a metal layer disposed thereon, the metal layer having a conductive trace pattern formed therein;
• depositing a dielectric material layer over the conductive trace pattern of the metal layer;
• determining a layout of a plurality of air gaps that will be formed in the dielectric material layer based on a design rule checking (DRC) procedure and the conductive trace pattern comprising:
• generating a first candidate air gap layout comprising a first plurality of parallel air gaps within a boundary of the dielectric material layer;
• generating a second candidate air gap layout comprising the first plurality of parallel air gaps and a second plurality of parallel air gaps within the boundary, each of the second plurality of parallel air gaps disposed between air gaps of the first plurality of parallel air gaps;
• and
• selecting the first candidate air gap layout or the second candidate air gap layout as the layout of the plurality of air gaps based on the DRC procedure;
• and
• forming the plurality of air gaps in the dielectric material layer based on the layout of the plurality of air gaps.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising:

• determining a boundary of a region within which a conductive trace pattern is disposed;
• generating a first candidate air gap layout in an insulating layer based on the boundary, the first candidate air gap layout comprising a first plurality of parallel air gaps disposed within the boundary;
• generating a second candidate air gap layout in the insulating layer from the first candidate air gap layout, the second candidate air gap layout comprising the first plurality of parallel air gaps and a second plurality of parallel air gaps, each of the second plurality of parallel air gaps disposed between immediately adjacent air gaps of the first plurality of parallel air gaps;
• selecting the first candidate air gap layout or the second candidate air gap layout as a layout of air gaps that will be formed in the insulating layer over the conductive trace pattern;
• forming the insulating layer;
• and
• forming a plurality of air gaps in the insulating layer based on the layout of air gaps.