International Business Machines Corporation

Barry Jack Ginsberg

Terence Lawrence Kane

Brett H Engel

Joachim Norbert Burghartz

Chung-Ping Eng

John Charles Petrus

Siegfried R Mader

Dermott A Macpherson

Methods of etching a semiconductor structure using ion milling with a variable-position endpoint detector to unlayer multiple interconnect layers, including low-k dielectric films. The ion milling process is controlled for each material type to maintain a planar surface with minimal damage to the exposed materials. In so doing, an ion beam mills a first layer and detects an endpoint thereof using an optical detector positioned within the ion beam adjacent the first layer to expose a second layer of low-k dielectric film. Once the low-k dielectric film is exposed, a portion of the low-k dielectric film may be removed to provide spaces therein, which are backfilled with a material and polished to remove the backfill material and a layer of the multiple interconnect metal layers. Still further, the exposed low-k dielectric film may then be removed, and the exposed metal vias polished.

Method of reworking structures incorporating low-k dielectric materials

Selective and non-selective epitaxial growth is utilized to form a bipolar transistor having self-aligned emitter and base regions. A substrate of semiconductor material of a first conductivity type is provided and a first layer of semiconductor material of a second conductivity type is non-selectively epitaxially grown on the substrate. An insulating element is formed on a portion of the first layer of semiconductor material and a second layer of semiconductor material of the second conductivity type is selectively epitaxially grown on the first layer such that a portion of the second layer laterally overgrows onto an upper surface of the insulating element. The lateral overgrowth forms an aperture in the second layer to expose a region of the upper surface of insulating element. A layer of insulating material is formed on the second layer to isolate the second layer of semiconductor material from a subsequent deposition of conductive material. The portion of the insulating layer formed within the aperture narrows the aperture and the exposed region of the element. The exposed region of the element is removed to expose a portion of the first layer and an emitter region of the first conductivity type is formed in the first layer through the aperture.

Method of forming bipolar transistor having self-aligned emitter-base

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Poughkeepsie, NY, United States of America

Barry Jack Ginsberg