Process of bonding semiconductor wafers having conductive semiconductor material extending through each wafer at the bond areas

Abstract

A process wherein plurality of individual device layers having semiconductor material conductive regions extending therethrough are bonded together before or after one or more circuit elements have been fabricated on each layer. Groups of device layers are formed by electrochemically anodizing a wafer of semiconductor material. The wafer is rendered totally porous except for a series of non-porous regions extending therethrough. The wafer is then oxidized and densifted to result in a wafer having a plurality of electrically isolated extended contacts. A plurality of wafers are processed in this manner. A variety of integrated circuit devices are then formed on the surface of each wafer. Once the processing of all individual wafers is completed, each wafer is bonded to another, with the extending contact aligned to electrically interconnect each device layer. The wafers are then diced to provide a plurality of multi-level integrated circuit structures.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.