Process for forming a ledge-free aluminum-copper-silicon conductor structure

Abstract

A process is disclosed for forming a ledge-free aluminum-copper silicon conductor structure that is free of the silicon bridging problem which has produced electrical shorting conditions in the prior art. The process comprises the steps of depositing the aluminum-copper metallurgy, depositing a photoresist layer to delineate the shape of the resulting conductors, etching the aluminum copper metallurgy with phosphoric/nitric acid, for example, removing the photoresist, evaporating a layer of silicon on the surface of the etched conductor layer, sintering the composite to drive the necessary amount of silicon into the aluminum-copper, and removing the residual silicon layer by a reactive plasma etching technique. The resulting conductor structure is free of silicon bridging.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.