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:
Dec. 08, 2015
Filed:
Sep. 15, 2014
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsin-Chu, TW;
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsin-Chu, TW;
Abstract
A semiconductor device is prepared by an annealing process to interconnect at least two components of the device by a conductor line surrounded by an insulator material. The annealing process results in formation of residual stresses within the conductor line and the insulator material. One or multiple notches are designed in the layout on a selective portion of the mask for patterning conductor line. The existence of the notch or notches on the selective portion generates extra stress components within the conductor line than would exist without the existence of the notch. The position of the notch is selected so that the extra stress components substantially counteract the residual stresses, thereby causing a net reduction in the residual stresses. The reduction in the residual stresses results in a corresponding mechanical stress migration and therefore improvement in the reliability of the device.