Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Kuo-Chou Chen

Ren-Dou Lee

Hsien-Liang Meng

Huai-Jen Hsu

Chia-Liang Chueh

Chun-Wei Lin

A sputtering target is provided that includes a planar backing plate and a target material formed over the planar backing plate and including an uneven sputtering surface including thick portions and thin portions and configured in conjunction with a sputtering apparatus such as a magnetron sputtering tool with a fixed magnet arrangement. The uneven surface is designed in conjunction with the magnetic fields that will be produced by the magnet arrangement such that the thicker target portions are positioned at locations where target erosion occurs at a high rate. Also provided is the magnetron sputtering system and a method for utilizing the target with uneven sputtering surface such that the thickness across the target to become more uniform in time as the target is used.

Sputtering target with reverse erosion profile surface and sputtering system and method using the same

A process for forming a bond pad structure to be used to accommodate a subsequent wire bond, has been developed. The process features defining a bond pad opening in a composite insulator stack, exposing a portion of a top surface of an upper level metal interconnect structure at the bottom of the bond pad opening. The bond pad opening is formed with a top portion of the composite insulator stack laterally pulled back from a bottom portion of the same composite insulator stack. The bond pad structure, comprised of aluminum&mdash;copper, is then formed entirely in the bond pad opening, with the top surface of the bond pad structure lower than the top surface of the composite insulator stack, thus resulting in a bond pad structure topography offering reduced risk of damage during subsequent pre-wire bonding procedures.

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Zhubei, Taiwan

Kuo-Chou Chen