Lumped passive components and method of manufacture

Abstract

Lumped passive components including a capacitor having a silicon nitride dielectric, a tantalum film resistor, and a capacitor having a tantalum oxide dielectric are formed on a semi-insulating substrate by first providing an insulating layer, here of silicon nitride, over the substrate and metal contacts having previously been formed on such substrate. The metal contacts provide a first plate for each one of such capacitors. A tantalum layer is reactively sputtered on the insulating layer, and a protective masking layer is next provided on such tantalum layer. An area where the anodized tantalum capacitor is to be formed is then opened in the protective masking layer over a selected one of the metal contacts. A portion of the tantalum is anodized in such area to form an area of a tantalum oxide (Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5). The area where the tantalum oxide is formed is confined generally to the area in the tantalum layer over the contact. The masking layer is removed and a second masking layer is patterned to provide an etching mask used to etch the tantalum layer to define each one of such capacitors, and to provide a strip of tantalum, defining a region for said tantalum resistor. Top metal contacts are then provided aligned with the first set of such contacts, and thus providing a second metal plate of the anodized tantalum capacitor and a second metal plate of the silicon nitride capacitor. Further, a set of metal contacts is provided to each end of the tantalum strip to provide the tantalum resistor.