U.S. Philips Corporation

Daniel W Verbugt

Hermanus L Peek

It may be necessary to provide conductors at very small distances from one another when electronic circuits, for example integrated circuits, are manufactured on an insulating substrate. A multilayer wiring system is often used in that case. The invention renders it possible to make very small inter-electrode gaps in a single conductor layer. To achieve this, the conductor layer is covered with a comparatively thick dielectric layer 4, 5 in which windows 8 are formed which extend over only part of the dielectric layer. Then an auxiliary layer 9 is provided which has depressions at the areas of the windows 8. Windows 11 are formed in the dielectric layer by anisotropic etching-back with dimensions which are substantially smaller than the dimensions of the original windows 8. The windows 11 may be used as etching windows or oxidation windows for the subsequent formation of the definitive conductor pattern.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Daniel W Verbugt