Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing the same

A method for patterning a multi-layer film in a semiconductor device comprising the steps of:

• providing a substrate;
• forming the multi-layer film on the substrate, wherein the multi-layer film comprises N conductive layers and N dielectric layers alternatingly stacked and the Nth dielectric layer is formed at the top of the multi-layer film, N being a positive integer;
• forming a patterned dielectric layer on the multi-layer film, wherein the patterned dielectric layer comprises at least one set of 2N holes;
• forming a first anti-reflective layer on the patterned dielectric layer;
• setting two variables N1 and N2, where N1 and N2 are initially set as N;
• forming a first patterned photoresist layer on the first anti-reflective layer, wherein the first patterned photoresist layer comprises a hole over each of the even-numbered holes of the 1st to N1th holes of each of the at least one set of 2N holes of the patterned dielectric layer, and a hole over each of the odd-numbered holes of the (N2+1)-th to 2Nth holes of each of the at least one set of 2N holes of the patterned N+lth dielectric layer;
• etching the first anti-reflective layer based on the firstsecond patterned photoresist layer;
• removing the first second patterned photoresist layer and the remaining first anti-reflective layer;
• forming a first polymer layer on the patterned dielectric layer;
• forming a second patterned photoresist layer on the first polymer layer, wherein the second patterned photoresist layer comprises a hole over the (N1-1)-th, N1th, (N2+1)-th and N2+2th holes of each of the at least one set of 2N holes of the patterned dielectric layer;
• etching through the first polymer layer based on the second patterned photoresist layer, such that the (N1-1)-th, N1th, (N2+1)-th and (N2+2)-th holes of each of the at least one set of 2N holes of the patterned dielectric layer are exposed;
• etching the multi-layer film based on the exposed patterned dielectric layer, such that the N1th and (N2+1)-th holes of each of the at least one set of 2N holes of the patterned dielectric layer expose a portion of the (N-2)-th conductive layer, and the (N1-1)-th and (N2+2)-th holes of each of the at least one set of 2N holes of the patterned dielectric layer expose a portion of the (N-1)-th conductive layer;
• and
• repeating the steps of:
• etching the first polymer layer such that the (N1-2)-th, (N1-3)-th, (N2+3)-th and (N2+4)-th holes of each of the at least one set of 2N holes of the patterned dielectric layer are exposed;
• etching the multi-layer film based on the exposed patterned dielectric layer by first etching away the exposed conductive layers, and subsequently etching away portions of two of the N dielectric layers and one of the N conductive layers exposed by each hole;
• decreasing N1 by 2;
• and
• increasing N2 by 2, until N1-2 is less than 0.

A method for patterning a multi-layer film in a semiconductor device, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a substrate;
• forming an insulator on the substrate;
• forming the multi-layer film on the insulator, wherein the multi-layer film comprises a plurality of conductive layers and a plurality of dielectric layers alternatingly stacked;
• forming a patterned dielectric layer on the multi-layer film, wherein the patterned dielectric layer comprises a plurality of holes;
• forming a first polymer layer on the patterned dielectric layer, the first polymer having a thickness between 2000 to 6000Å;
• forming a second polymer layer on the first polymer layer, the second polymer having a thickness between 500 to 1200Å;
• forming a first patterned photoresist layer on the second polymer layer, wherein the first patterned photoresist layer has a thickness between 800 to 2000Åand comprises a first opening over at least one hole of the patterned dielectric layer;
• etching the first polymer layer and the second polymer layer based on the first patterned photoresist layer to form a patterned first polymer layer, wherein the patterned first polymer layer comprise a second opening which exposes at least one first hole of the holes in the patterned dielectric layer;
• etching the first polymer layer and the second polymer layer based on the first patterned photoresist layer to form a patterned first polymer layer, wherein the patterned first polymer layer comprise a second opening which exposes at least one first hole of the holes in the patterned dielectric layer;
• etching the multi-layer film through the second opening to form at least one first contact hole under each of the exposed at least one first hole of the patterned dielectric layer;
• forming a third opening in the patterned polymer layer to expose at least one second hole of the holes in the patterned dielectric layer;
• and
• etching the multi-layer film through the second opening and the third opening to form at least one second contact hole under each of the exposed at least one second hole in the patterned dielectric layer, and to etch each of the at least one first contact hole deeper, wherein the at least one first contact hole is deeper than the at least one second contact hole, the first contact hole under each of the exposed at least one first hole of the patterned dielectric layer, and the second contact hole under each of the exposed at least one second hole in the patterned dielectric layer are used to form contact plugs, and each of the contact plugs is precisely aligned with a contact hole in the multi-layer film.