Method for designing antenna cell that prevents plasma induced gate dielectric damage in semiconductor integrated circuits

A method for forming a semiconductor structure, said method comprising:

• forming at least one active transistor having an active polysilicon gate over a surface of a semiconductor substrate;
• coupling a metal lead to said at least one active polysilicon gate;
• and
• further coupling said metal lead to VSS through a diode including a dummy transistor comprising a dummy polysilicon transistor gate disposed over a gate dielectric disposed over a continuous source/drain dopant impurity region, including directly coupling said metal lead to said continuous source/drain dopant impurity region and coupling said dummy polysilicon transistor gate to said VSS,
• wherein said continuous source/drain dopant impurity region is a single unitary region that extends underneath and past opposed sides of said dummy polysilicon transistor gate and all of said single unitary region has the same dopant impurity type.

A method for forming a semiconductor structure, said method comprising:

• providing a semiconductor substrate;
• defining an antenna cell on a surface of said semiconductor substrate;
• forming a plurality of polysilicon lines extending through said antenna cell;
• forming a dummy transistor using one said polysilicon line as a dummy gate thereof, said dummy transistor including said dummy gate disposed over a gate dielectric disposed over a continuous unitary source/drain dopant impurity region, all of the continuous unitary source/drain dopant impurity region having the same dopant impurity type;
• and
• coupling an active transistor gate to a diode formed of said dummy transistor using a metal lead that is coupled to said continuous source/drain dopant impurity region.