Conductive photoresist to mitigate antenna effect
AssigneeIndustrial Technology Research Institute
InventorBing-Yue Tsui
Life of this patent
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Abstract
During gas plasma etching, trapped charge from the plasma can be concentrated in semiconductor devices through the conductive portions of an integrated circuit, leading to their damage. This is known as the antenna effect. This effect can be mitigated by using a photoresist that is electrically conductive during plasma etching. This has been shown to reduce said charge accumulation and device damage. Said conductive photoresist is employed during integrated circuit processing in the same way as is the standard photoresist of the prior art.
Claims18
A method for mitigating the antenna effect during plasma etching of an integrated circuit comprising:
- using an electrically conductive photoresist to protect portions of said integrated circuit that are not to be removed during said plasma etching.
A method for forming multilevel interconnections in an integrated circuit comprising:
- providing a semiconductor substrate;
- forming active and passive devices on and in said substrate;
- forming a patterned layer of a first conductive material to act as a first conductive contact to said devices;
- depositing an insulating layer over said first layer of conductive material;
- forming via holes in said insulating layer;
- depositing a second conductive layer over said insulating layer and through said via holes;
- applying and then patterning a layer of electrically conductive photo-resist over said second conductive layer;
- exposing the integrated circuit to a first gaseous plasma environment thereby removing, from said second conductive layer, material not covered by said layer of electrically conductive photoresist;
- and
- then removing said layer of electrically conductive photoresist by exposing it to a second gaseous plasma environment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.