Texas Instruments Corporation

Agerico L Esquirel

Theodore Warren Houston

Amitava Chatterjee

Somnath S Nag

Keith Alan Joyner

Jeffrey A McKee

Ih-Chin Chen

Peter S McAnally

Yin Hu

Iqbal Ali

A technique of producing a semiconductor device or integrated circuit produces a planarized refill layer which has a more uniform thickness after polishing, such as by chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP). Dummy active areas are inserted between active areas in that portion of the substrate which would normally be occupied by a field oxide in order to reduce to 'dishing' that occurs during CMP in these areas. The dummy active areas can take the shape of a large block, a partially or completely formed ring structure or a plurality of pillars the area density of which can be adjusted to match the area density of the active areas in that region of the substrate. The design rule for the pillars can be such that no pillars are placed where polycrystalline silicon lines or first level metallization lines are to be placed in order to avoid parasitic capacitances.

Reducing non-uniformity in a refill layer thickness for a semiconductor

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Agerico L Esquirel