Digital Equipment Corporation

Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc.

Tirunelveli Subramanian Sriram

Robert B Marcus

Vladimir Bolkhovsky

Ann C Westerheim

Yongxia Zhang

John J Maziarz

A method is described for forming an electromigration-resistant (ER) intermetallic region beneath and adjacent a conductive plug in a via. Preferably the ER region is formed of a sintered intermetallic compound of Al and Ti, and the conductive plug is formed of W.

Electromigration-resistant via structure

A small bimetallic thermocouple probe device for use in scanning atomic force microscopy is mass produced by etching and oxidatively sharpening silicon points on a standard silicon wafer. The sharpened points are oxidized and the first thermocouple metal layer is deposited and patterned. The intermetal dielectric layer is deposited and removed in the area of the tip of the probe by a simple double spin photoresist process having a drying cycle between the two spins. The exposed tips have the dielectric etched, and the second thermocouple metal is deposited and patterned. The finished thermocouples are produced by etching the silicon from the back side of the wafer to free up the cantilevered structure which the probe are constructed upon. With such a procedure, large numbers of tiny, low thermal mass scanning atomic force microscope thermocouple probes may be inexpensively manufactured.

Scanning force microscope thermal microprobe

Growing community of inventors

Maynard, MA, United States of America

Tirunelveli Subramanian Sriram