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. 28, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 24, 1998
Syun-Ming Jang, Hsin-Chu, TW;
Ying-Ho Chen, Taipei, TW;
Jui-Yu Chang, Hsin-Chu, TW;
Chen-Hua Yu, Hsin-Chu, TW;
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Hsin-Chu, TW;
Abstract
The present invention provides a method of removing an shallow trench isolation (STI) oxide layer 38 from over alignment marks 30. The invention has two major features: (1) A STI photoresist mask 42A that is used to etch Alignment area trenches 34 around alignment marks 30 and to etch STI trenches 35 in device areas 14; and (2) A 'reverse tone' STI photoresist mask 42B that is used to remove the isolation oxide 38 from over the alignment marks 30 and from over the active areas 37. The method begins by providing a substrate 10 having a device area 14, an alignment mark trench area 16; and an alignment mark area 18. A polish stop layer 20 22 is formed over the substrate 10. A trench isolation resist layer 42A is used to etch alignment area trenches 34 around the alignment marks 34 and STI trenches 35 in the device areas. A dielectric layer 38 is formed over the substrate. In a key step, the reverse tone trench isolation resist layer 42B is used to etch the first dielectric layer 38 from over the alignment marks 30 and the Active areas 27. Next, the remaining first dielectric layer 38 is chemical-mechanical polished thereby planarizing the first dielectric layer 38.