Method of etching contacts with reduced oxide stress

Abstract

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device forms a trench of a trench isolation region in a portion of a top surface of a semiconductor substrates. Oxide is deposited as a trench liner in the trench using high temperature high density plasma (HDP) deposition. As the high temperature HDP oxide deposition is a stress neutral process, stress defects in an interface between the silicon substrate and the oxide layer are avoided, so that subsequent etching steps in a local interconnect process are less likely to overreach at the interface. This reduces the possibility of junction leakage when the local interconnect is formed.