International Business Machines Corporation

Mark D Levy

Jeffrey P Gambino

Robert K Leidy

Anthony K Stamper

Qizhi Liu

Baozhen Li

Hyun K Lee

Stephen Ellinwood Luce

Kwong Hon Wong

Thomas L McDevitt

Gary L Milo

Lloyd G Burrell

John E Heidenreich, Iii

Sally J Yankee

Edward E Cooney, Iii

Mark David Jaffe

John Chester Malinowski

Faye D Baker

Matthew C Nicholls

Mark R Beckenbaugh

Kenneth A Bandy

Timothy C Milmore

Vincent J Carlos

Sara L Lucas

Jason Nowakowski

Jason J Freerksen

Disclosed is a trench formation technique wherein an opening having a first sidewall with planar contour and a second sidewall with a saw-tooth contour is etched through a semiconductor layer and into a semiconductor substrate. Then, a crystallographic wet etch process expands the portion of the opening within the semiconductor substrate to form a trench. Due to the different contours of the sidewalls and, thereby the different crystal orientations, one sidewall etches faster than the other, resulting in an asymmetric trench. Also disclosed is a bipolar semiconductor device formation method that incorporates the above-mentioned trench formation technique when forming a trench isolation region that undercuts an extrinsic base region and surrounds a collector pedestal. The asymmetry of the trench ensures that the trench isolation region has a relatively narrow width and, thereby ensures that both collector-to-base capacitance Cand collector resistance Rare minimized within the resulting bipolar semiconductor device.

Formation of an asymmetric trench in a semiconductor substrate and a bipolar semiconductor device having an asymmetric trench isolation region

An integrated circuit chip comprising a guard ring formed on a semiconductor substrate that surrounds the active region of the integrated circuit chip and extends from the semiconductor substrate through one or more of a plurality of wiring levels. The guard ring comprises stacked metal lines with spaces breaking up each respective metal line. Each space may be formed such that it partially overlies the space in the metal line directly below but does not overlie any other space. Alternatively, each space may also be formed such that each space is at least completely overlying the space in the metal line below it.

Discontinuous guard ring

Pixel sensor cells with an opaque mask layer and methods of manufacturing are provided. The method includes forming a transparent layer over at least one active pixel and at least one dark pixel of a pixel sensor cell. The method further includes forming an opaque region in the transparent layer over the at least one dark pixel.

Pixel sensor cells and methods of manufacturing

A method, computer system and program product introduce adding a variable performance ranking parameter to a diagram of a circuit to drive implementation of modifications that are yield improving, performance boosting, or performance-neutral. The information is paired to accomplish a more complete design for manufacturability modification in the design of circuits implemented on chips. In this matter, both yield and chip performance are improved.

Variable performance ranking and modification in design for manufacturability of circuits

Tungsten studs of a size comparable to vias are provided to integrate and interface between copper and aluminum metallization layers in an integrated circuit and/or package therefor by lining a via opening, preferably with layers of tantalum nitride and PVD tungsten as a barrier against the corrosive effects of tungsten fluoride on copper. The reduced size of the tungsten studs relative to known interface structures allows wiring and connection pads to be formed in a single aluminum layer, improving performance and reducing process time and cost.

Copper to aluminum interlayer interconnect using stud and via liner

A method for forming a semiconductor wafer comprising of applying a first patterned resist to at least one first predetermined region of a wafer where said at least one first predetermined region of said wafer are protected by said first patterned resist and a first remaining portion of said wafer is not protected by said first patterned resist; etching said first remaining portion of said wafer not protected by said first pattern resist; stripping the first pattern resist from said wafer; applying a second patterned resist to at least one second pre-determined region of said wafer where said at least one second predetermined region of said wafer are protected by a second patterned resist and a second remaining portion is not protected by said second patterned resist; etching said second remaining portion not protected by said second patterned resist; and stripping said second patterned resist from said wafer.

Multi-run selective pattern and etch wafer process

Growing community of inventors

Milton, VT, United States of America

Mark D Levy