Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Making device or circuit emissive of nonelectrical signal
Reexamination Certificate
2007-08-07
2007-08-07
Smith, Matthew (Department: 2823)
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Making device or circuit emissive of nonelectrical signal
C438S160000, C438S942000, C438S947000, C438S950000, C257SE21240, C257SE21259
Reexamination Certificate
active
10941665
ABSTRACT:
A semiconductor manufacturing method comprises forming a leveling guard ring defining an interior area into which are fabricated one or more devices. In certain aspects, two or more matched devices, such as in a common centroid layout, are fabricated in the interior area. The guard ring is formed on at least one particular layer for a particular processing step. By the guard ring overwhelming the effect of local features' elevation differences, photoresist thereafter applied consequently has a more uniform height across the interior area, resulting in more uniform devices. A plurality of guard rings may be used that enclose respective arrays of matched devices arranged over the surface of a semiconductor wafer. Based on the equalizing effect by each of the guard rings, the respective devices arranged in the interior areas are more evenly matched to equivalent devices in far-spaced guard rings. Thus, local and global matching are achieved.
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H.P.Tuinhout, Design Of Matching Test Structures, IEEE 1994, vol. 7, Mar. 1994, pp. 21-23.
Chen Alan Sangone
Jamison Michele Marie
Kerr Daniel Charles
Luce Roscoe T.
Russell William A.
Agere Systems Inc.
Pham Thanh V.
Smith Matthew
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