International Business Machines Corporation

George T Chiu

Gunars M Ozols

Edward C Fredericks

Kenneth Chang

James R Kitcher

Bryant N Zingerman

Robert R Joseph

Anthony Hoeg, Jr

Linda H Lee

Aluminum/copper alloy conductors are made by forming a patterned layer of copper on a layer of aluminum. The portion of the aluminum layer which is not protected by the copper layer is removed by reactive ion etching and the resulting structure is then heated to cause the copper to diffuse into, and alloy with the aluminum layer.

Method of forming aluminum/copper alloy conductors

A process for forming a layer of a metallurgy interconnection system on a substrate. The process involves forming a first electrically insulative layer of an organic polymerized resin material on the substrate, forming a second thin layer on the first layer which is resistant to dry etching conditions which are effective to etch the first layer, depositing a photoresist layer on the second layer, exposing the photoresist to form an inverse pattern of a desired metallurgy pattern and developing the photoresist, reactive ion etching the resultant exposed areas of the first and second layers, depositing a blanket continuous conductive metal layer over the hills and valleys of the pattern resulting from reactive ion etching, applying a planarizing photoresist layer, etching the photoresist to expose high spots of the metal layer, and etching the metal high spots to a depth sufficient to expose the surface of the second layer.

Planar metal interconnection system and process

Chromium is etched in a glow discharge without attack on Al/Cu, Si, SiO.sub.2, and Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 layers by etching in a low pressure ambient atmosphere containing a polychlorinated organic compound such as CCl.sub.4, water, and a material selected from the group consisting of the noble gases and oxygen.

Glow discharge etching process for chromium

Resist images are hardened so that they are flow resistant at elevated temperatures by coating the image with a layer of a quinone-diazide hardening agent and heating the image to cause the agent to react with the resist and form a hardened image.

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Wappingers Falls, NY, United States of America

George T Chiu