International Business Machines Corporation

Man-Chong Wong

Robert R Joseph

Robert H Dykeman

A composite insulator structure separating adjacent layers of patterned metal on an LSI chip is disclosed. The composite insulator consists of a relatively thick layer of sputtered oxide and a thin layer of plasma nitride. The relatively thin layer can be underneath, inside or on top of the thick layer. The relatively thin layer is conformal and able to cover projections on the underlying metal and prevent interlevel shorting between the patterned layers.

Composite insulator structure

Sputter deposited coating uniformity is improved by contouring the anode plate to provide thinner regions around the wafer edges so that more resputtered coating material is deposited at the wafer edge to compensate for the observed decrease in coating thickness at the edge.

Growing community of inventors

Poughkeepsie, NY, United States of America

Man-Chong Wong