High Productivity Combinatorial Dual Shadow Mask Design
AssigneeIntermolecular, Inc.
InventorsVenkat Ananthan, Prashant B. Phatak
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Dual shadow mask design can overcome the size and resolution limitations of shadow masks to provide capacitor structures with small effective areas. The capacitor structures have bottom and top electrode layers patterned using shadow masks, sandwiching a dielectric layer. The effective areas of the capacitors are the overlapping areas of the top and bottom electrodes, thus allowing small area sizes without subjected to the size limitation of the electrodes. The dual shadow mask design can be used in conjunction with high productivity combinatorial processes for screening and optimizing dielectric materials and fabrication processes.
Claims20
A method for forming capacitor structures on a substrate in a combinatorial manner, comprising
- depositing a bottom patterned electrode layer on the substrate by depositing a bottom conductive material through one or more apertures in a first shadow mask, the bottom patterned electrode layer comprising one or more bottom electrodes;
- defining site isolated regions on the bottom patterned electrode layer;
- depositing a dielectric layer on each of the site isolated regions, wherein at least one property of the dielectric layer is varied in a combinatorial manner;
- depositing a top patterned electrode layer on the dielectric layer by depositing a top conductive material through one or more apertures in a second shadow mask, the top patterned electrode layer comprising one or more top electrodes;
- wherein at least a top electrode of the one or more top electrodes and a bottom electrode of the one or more bottom electrodes overlap to form a capacitor structure comprising an overlapped dielectric area.
A method for forming capacitor structures on a substrate in a combinatorial manner, comprising
- depositing a bottom patterned electrode layer on the substrate by depositing a bottom conductive material through one or more apertures in a first shadow mask, the bottom patterned electrode layer comprising one or more bottom electrodes;
- defining site isolated regions on the bottom patterned electrode layer;
- depositing a dielectric layer on each of the site isolated regions, wherein at least one property of the dielectric layer is varied in a combinatorial manner;
- singulating the substrate into multiple substrate pieces;
- positioning multiple second shadow masks on the multiple substrate pieces;
- depositing a top patterned electrode layer on the multiple substrate pieces by depositing a top conductive material through one or more apertures in the second shadow masks, the top patterned electrode layer comprising one or more top electrodes;
- wherein at least a top electrode of the one or more top electrodes and a bottom electrode of the one or more bottom electrodes overlap to form a capacitor structure comprising an overlapped dielectric area.
A workpiece comprising a substrate comprising multiple site isolated regions, each site isolated region comprising
- a bottom electrode patterned layer comprising one or more bottom electrodes;
- a dielectric layer disposed on the bottom patterned electrode layer;
- a top electrode patterned layer comprising one or more top electrodes,
- wherein at least a top electrode of the one or more top electrodes and a bottom electrode of the one or more bottom electrodes overlap to form a capacitor structure comprising an overlapped dielectric area,
- wherein at least one property of the dielectric layer is varied in a combinatorial manner in the multiple site isolated regions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.