The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 21, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 07, 1997
Kishore K Chakravorty, San Jose, CA (US);
Philip J Elizondo, San Jose, CA (US);
Candescent Technologies Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for forming a gate electrode. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises depositing a gate metal over an underlying substrate such that a layer of the gate metal is formed above the underlying substrate. In the present invention, the layer of the gate metal is deposited to a thickness approximately the same as the thickness desired for the gate electrode. Next, the present invention deposits polymer particles onto the layer of gate metal. A hard mask layer is then deposited over the polymer particles and the layer of the gate metal. The present invention removes the polymer particles and portions of the hard mask layer which overlie the polymer particles such that first regions of the layer of the gate metal are exposed, and such that second regions of the layer of the gate metal remain covered by the hard mask layer. After the removal step, the present invention etches through the first regions of the layer of the gate metal such that openings are formed completely through the layer of the gate metal at the first regions. After the openings have been formed, the remaining portions of the hard mask layer which overlie the second regions of the layer of the gate metal are removed.