Method of fabricating a semiconductor memory device

Abstract

A semiconductor memory device wherein at least one of a storage node contact hole and a bit line contact hole includes a first contact hole made in a first inter-layer insulating film formed over a gate electrode and a second contact hole made in a second inter-layer insulating film formed over an electrically conductive material embedded up to a level higher than the gate electrode in the first contact hole which is contacted with the electrically conductive material, the conductive material being exposed by etching a part of the second inter-layer insulating film, whereby the size of the memory device can be made small and the reliability can be improved. Further, a capacitor is formed in a layer higher than a bit line thereby to facilitate the processing of a storage node electrode to increase the capacitor area and to improve the reliability since it is unnecessary to carry out patterning a plate electrode within a cell array. With the above construction, a short-circuiting between the embedded layers is removed and a good quality of the second inter-layer insulating film is formed.