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:
Jan. 19, 2010
Filed:
Aug. 07, 2009
Jonathan D. Chapple-sokol, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Terence B. Hook, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Baozhen LI, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Thomas L. Mcdevitt, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Christopher A. Ponsolle, Colchester, VT (US);
Bette B. Reuter, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Timothy D. Sullivan, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Jeffrey S. Zimmerman, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Jonathan D. Chapple-Sokol, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Terence B. Hook, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Baozhen Li, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Thomas L. McDevitt, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Christopher A. Ponsolle, Colchester, VT (US);
Bette B. Reuter, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Timothy D. Sullivan, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Jeffrey S. Zimmerman, Essex Junction, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A structure for suppressing localized metal precipitate formation (LMPF) in semiconductor processing. For each metal wire that is exposed to the manufacturing environment and is electrically coupled to an N region, at least one P+ region is formed electrically coupled to the same metal wire. As a result, few excess electrons are available to combine with metal ions to form localized metal precipitate at the metal wire. A monitoring ramp terminal can be formed around and electrically disconnected from the metal wire. By applying a voltage difference to the metal wire and the monitoring ramp terminal and measuring the resulting current flowing through the metal wire and the monitoring ramp terminal, it can be determined whether localized metal precipitate is formed at the metal wire.