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:
Sep. 30, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 16, 2001
Applicant:
Inventors:
Thomas J. Hartswick, Underhill, VT (US);
Mark E. Masters, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Assignee:
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 2/710 ; H01L 2/14763 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 2/710 ; H01L 2/14763 ;
Abstract
In a semiconductor device using fill shape patterns incorporated into wiring levels to increase the planarity of the wiring levels, the fill shapes are aligned from one wiring level to another wiring level to provide lines of sight to lower wiring levels for visual inspection. Also, in accordance with the invention, selected aligned fill shapes are interconnected with vias to form conductive stacks for contacting lower wiring level conductive wires from upper wiring levels in order to perform electrical test probing/diagnostics.