Self Aligned Contact Formation

A method of forming a self-aligned contact, comprising:

• forming a plurality of gate lines interspersed between a plurality of dielectric lines, wherein the gate lines and the dielectric lines extend over first and second active areas;
• cutting one or more of the plurality of dielectric lines at a first plurality of positions between the first and second active areas to form a plurality of disjoint dielectric line sections separated by a first plurality of cuts;
• cutting one or more of the plurality of gate lines at a second plurality of positions between the first and second active areas to form a plurality of disjoint gate line sections separated by a second plurality of cuts;
• depositing a dummy isolation material within the first and second plurality of cuts;
• and
• replacing a part of one or more of the plurality of dielectric lines over the first and second active areas with a contact metal to form one or more self-aligned metal contacts disposed between two of the plurality of gate lines.

A method of forming a self-aligned contact, comprising:

• forming a plurality of sacrificial gate lines on a semiconductor substrate, wherein the plurality of sacrificial gate lines extend over an active area in a first direction;
• forming a plurality of dielectric lines interspersed between the plurality of sacrificial gate lines on the semiconductor substrate;
• selectively cutting the sacrificial gate lines and the dielectric lines at a position external to the active area to form a plurality of cuts;
• depositing a dummy isolation material into the plurality of cuts;
• and
• replacing a part of the plurality of dielectric lines with self-aligned metal contacts above the active area.