Decoupling capacitor structure distributed above an integrated circuit and method for making same
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsPhilip George Emma, Wei Hwang, Stephen McConnell Gates
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention describes the use of large thin film (TF) capacitors having capacitance C made in a separate set of TF layers ABOVE the Si and wiring levels of an integrated circuit (IC). This C is very large. This invention describes a two-level IC architecture in which a metal/insulator/metal (MIM) capacitor structure comprises the upper level, and CMOS logic and memory circuits made in the Si wafer substrate comprise the lower level. The added thin film capacitance serves to stabilize the power supply voltage at a constant level during GHz IC operation.
Claims8
A metal/insulator/metal (MIM) thin film capacitor structure comprising:
- a pair of electrodes formed from a pair of interconnection levels of an integrated circuit chip, said interconnection levels being separate from and above a substrate level of the integrated circuit chip, wherein a lower electrode includes a tapered sidewall profile with surfaces including a top section and two inclined sections;
- and
- an insulator disposed between said pair of electrodes, said insulator comprising a plurality of dielectric layers, said dielectric layers and an upper electrode are deposited in parallel with said surfaces of lower electrode.
An integrated circuit chip comprising:
- a substrate level;
- and
- a capacitor level separate from the above the substrate level, the capacitor level comprising a plurality of metal-insulator-metal thin film capacitors, each of which includes a multilayer dielectric disposed between a pair of electrodes, wherein a lower electrode includes a tapered sidewall profile.
A method for making a metal-insulator-metal thin film capacitor structure in an integrated circuit, comprising:
- depositing a blanket metal film on a dielectric material;
- depositing a mask layer on the blanket metal film;
- removing a portion of the mask layer to expose a portion of the blanket metal layer while leaving a portion of the mask with tapered edges;
- etching the exposed blanked metal and mask until a metal level feature remains, the metal level feature having tapered edges with surfaces including a top section and two inclined sections;
- depositing a dielectric on the metal level feature;
- and
- depositing a metal layer on the dielectric layer, said dielectric and metal layer are deposited in parallel with said surfaces of metal level feature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.