Via structure and via etching process of forming the same
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsHung-Pin CHANG, Wen-Chih CHIOU, Chen-Hua YU
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Abstract
A via etching process forms a through-substrate via having a round corner and a tapered sidewall profile. A method includes providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a hard mask layer and a patterned photoresist layer on the semiconductor substrate; forming an opening in the hard mask and exposing a portion of the semiconductor substrate; forming a via passing through at least a part of the of semiconductor substrate using the patterned photoresist layer and hard mask layer as a masking element; performing a trimming process to round the top corner of the via; and removing the photoresist layer.
Claims18
A method, comprising:
- providing a semiconductor substrate;
- forming a hard mask layer on the semiconductor substrate;
- forming a photoresist layer on the hard mask layer;
- patterning the photoresist layer to form a first opening;
- patterning the hard mask layer to form a second opening underlying the first opening, exposing a portion of the semiconductor substrate;
- etching the exposed portion of the semiconductor substrate to form a via passing through at least a part of the semiconductor substrate;
- performing a trimming process to round the top corner of the via;
- and
- removing the photoresist layer.
A method, comprising:
- providing a semiconductor substrate comprising a hard mask layer formed thereon;
- forming an interconnect structure in the hard mask layer;
- forming a photoresist layer on the hard mask layer;
- patterning the photoresist layer to form a first opening;
- patterning the hard mask layer to form a second opening underlying the first opening, exposing a portion of the semiconductor substrate;
- etching the exposed portion of the semiconductor substrate to form a via passing through at least a part of the semiconductor substrate;
- performing a trimming process to round the top corner of the via;
- and
- removing the photoresist layer.
An integrated circuit structure, comprising:
- a semiconductor substrate;
- a hard mask layer formed on the semiconductor substrate;
- at least a conductive layer formed in the hard mask layer;
- and
- a via extending from the hard mask layer to at least a portion of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the via has a round corner and a tapered sidewall.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.