The present invention relates to wiring an electrical device, and more specifically, to creating wiring levels.
Traditionally, wiring of microelectronics has been performed using subtractive processes, such as damascene or dual damascene processes. Such processes work by depositing a dielectric material, removing a portion of the dielectric, and filling the void with a conductive material.
An embodiment of the invention may include a method of forming a device. The method may include forming a first conductive pattern on a first surface of a substrate. The method may include depositing a first conformal layer on the first surface of the substrate and the first conductive pattern. The method may include planarizing the first conformal layer so that a top surface of the first conductive pattern is substantially planar to a top surface of the first conformal layer. The method may include forming a first electrical component on the top surface of the first conformal layer in contact with the first conductive pattern. This may enable wiring on different levels as the electrical components, while allowing the first electrical component to be built on a substantially planar surface.
An embodiment of the device may include the first conformal layer being a low loss material having a loss tangent of less than 10−3. This may improve the performance of sensitive electrical components by reducing electrical loss to the conformal layer.
An embodiment of the device may include the first conformal layer being amorphous silicon. This may improve the performance of sensitive electrical components by reducing electrical loss to the conformal layer.
In an embodiment of the device, the method may include forming a via in a first surface of the substrate, wherein the via only extends partially to a second surface of the substrate, wherein the first surface of the substrate and the second surface of the substrate are opposite surfaces. The method may further include forming a portion of the first conductive pattern in contact with the via. This may enable wiring on the back side of a substrate, thereby reducing noise related to wiring at the first electrical component.
In an embodiment of the device, the method may include removing a portion of the second surface of the substrate to expose the via on the second surface of the substrate.
In an embodiment of the device, the method may include depositing a second conductive pattern on the second surface of the substrate, wherein at least a portion of the second conductive patter is in contact with the exposed surface of the via.
In an embodiment of the device, the method may include depositing a second conformal layer on the second surface of the substrate and the second conductive pattern. In the embodiment the method may further include planarizing the second conformal layer so that a top surface of the second conductive pattern is substantially planar to a top surface of the second conformal layer.
In an embodiment of the device, the method may include forming a second electrical component on the top surface of the second conformal layer in contact with the second conductive pattern.
An embodiment of the device may include a material of the first conductive pattern being niobium.
An embodiment of the device may include a material of the second conductive pattern being niobium.
Another embodiment of the invention may include a device. The device may include a first conductive pattern located on a first surface of a substrate. The device may include a first amorphous silicon layer located on the first surface of the substrate. The exposed surface of the first amorphous silicon layer is substantially coplanar with an exposed surface of the first conductive pattern. The device may include a first electrical component. A portion of the electrical component is located on the first amorphous silicon layer, and wherein a portion of the electrical component is located on the first conductive pattern. This may enable wiring on different levels as the electrical components, while allowing the first electrical component to be built on a substantially planar surface.
An embodiment of the device may include the device having a conductive via extending from the first surface of the substrate to a second surface of the substrate, and wherein the conductive via is in contact with the first conductive pattern. This may enable wiring on the back side of a substrate, thereby reducing noise related to wiring at the first electrical component.
An embodiment of the device may include the device having a second amorphous silicon layer located on the second surface of the substrate, wherein an exposed surface of the second amorphous silicon layer is substantially coplanar with an exposed surface of the second conductive pattern. The device may include a second electrical component, wherein a portion of the electrical component is located on the second amorphous silicon layer, and wherein a portion of the electrical component is located on the second conductive pattern.
Elements of the figures are not necessarily to scale and are not intended to portray specific parameters of the invention. For clarity and ease of illustration, dimensions of elements may be exaggerated. The detailed description should be consulted for accurate dimensions. The drawings are intended to depict only typical embodiments of the invention, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numbering represents like elements.
Exemplary embodiments now will be described more fully herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown. This disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will convey the scope of this disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the description, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments.
For purposes of the description hereinafter, terms such as “upper”, “lower”, “right”, “left”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, and derivatives thereof shall relate to the disclosed structures and methods, as oriented in the drawing figures. Terms such as “above”, “overlying”, “atop”, “on top”, “positioned on” or “positioned atop” mean that a first element, such as a first structure, is present on a second element, such as a second structure, wherein intervening elements, such as an interface structure may be present between the first element and the second element. The term “direct contact” means that a first element, such as a first structure, and a second element, such as a second structure, are connected without any intermediary conducting, insulating or semiconductor layers at the interface of the two elements. As used herein, the term “same” when used for comparing values of a measurement, characteristic, parameter, etc., such as “the same width,” means nominally identical, such as within industry accepted tolerances for the measurement, characteristic, parameter, etc., unless the context indicates a different meaning. As used herein, the terms “about,” “approximately,” “significantly, or similar terms, when used to modify physical or temporal values, such as length, time, temperature, quantity, electrical characteristics, etc., or when such values are stated without such modifiers, means nominally equal to the specified value in recognition of variations to the values that can occur during typical handling, processing, and measurement procedures. These terms are intended to include the degree of error associated with measurement of the physical or temporal value based upon the equipment available at the time of filing the application, or a value within accepted engineering tolerances of the stated value. For example, the term “about” or similar can include a range of ±8% or 5%, or 2% of a given value. In one aspect, the term “about” or similar means within 10% of the specified numerical value. In another aspect, the term “about” or similar means within 5% of the specified numerical value. Yet, in another aspect, the term “about” or similar means within 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1% of the specified numerical value. In another aspect, these terms mean within industry accepted tolerances.
For the clarity of the description, and without implying any limitation thereto, illustrative embodiments may be described using simplified diagrams. In an actual fabrication, additional structures that are not shown or described herein, or structures different from those shown and described herein, may be present without departing from the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
Differently patterned portions in the drawings of the example structures, layers, and formations are intended to represent different structures, layers, materials, and formations in the example fabrication, as described herein. A specific shape, location, position, or dimension of a shape depicted herein is not intended to be limiting on the illustrative embodiments unless such a characteristic is expressly described as a feature of an embodiment. The shape, location, position, dimension, or some combination thereof, are chosen only for the clarity of the drawings and the description and may have been exaggerated, minimized, or otherwise changed from actual shape, location, position, or dimension that might be used in actual fabrication to achieve an objective according to the illustrative embodiments.
An embodiment when implemented in an application causes a fabrication process to perform certain steps as described herein. The steps of the fabrication process are depicted in the several figures. Unless such a characteristic is expressly described as a feature of an embodiment, not all steps may be necessary in a particular fabrication process; some fabrication processes may implement the steps in different order, combine certain steps, remove or replace certain steps, or perform some combination of these and other manipulations of steps, without departing the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
The illustrative embodiments are described with respect to certain types of materials, electrical properties, structures, formations, layers orientations, directions, steps, operations, planes, dimensions, numerosity, data processing systems, environments, and components. Unless such a characteristic is expressly described as a feature of an embodiment, any specific descriptions of these and other similar artifacts are not intended to be limiting to the invention; any suitable manifestation of these and other similar artifacts can be selected within the scope of the illustrative embodiments.
The illustrative embodiments are described using specific designs, architectures, layouts, schematics, and tools only as examples and are not limiting to the illustrative embodiments. The illustrative embodiments may be used in conjunction with other comparable or similarly purposed designs, architectures, layouts, schematics, and tools.
For the sake of brevity, conventional techniques related to microelectronic fabrication may or may not be described in detail herein. Moreover, the various tasks and process steps described herein can be incorporated into a more comprehensive procedure or process having additional steps or functionality not described in detail herein. In particular, various steps in the manufacture of microelectronic devices may be well known and so, in the interest of brevity, many conventional steps may only be mentioned briefly or may be omitted entirely without providing the well-known process details.
In the interest of not obscuring the presentation of embodiments of the present invention, in the following detailed description, some processing steps or operations that are known in the art may have been combined together for presentation and for illustration purposes and in some instances may have not been described in detail. In other instances, some processing steps or operations that are known in the art may not be described at all. It should be understood that the following description is rather focused on the distinctive features or elements of various embodiments of the present invention.
Conductive structures may be patterned on the surfaces of structures, with a conductive via acting as an electrical conduit between a first surface of a first side of the structure and a second surface of the second side of the structure. While such a raised pattern may be suitable for some applications, other applications may benefit from a substantially planar surface to the patterned conductive structure that can be used as the base to build additional structures, or perform additional processing. Traditional techniques, such as a damascene process, may etch into the conductive via and underlying via structure, and allow for refilling with a conductive material. However, such processes may cause undesired damage to underlying structure, such as by over etching of conductive vias leaving unwanted surface imperfections, which may lead to detrimental outcomes of electrical devices made using those vias. In addition, in a case where the conductive via is prepared as shown in
Thus, a process of creating a damascene-like wiring structure, where only a top surface of the wire is exposed so that the top surface of a wiring layout is substantially planar with other structures on that level of the device, may improve aspects of fabrication and performance of a resulting device. In some embodiments, such structures may benefit from having a surface that is substantially similar, chemically, to the substrate carrying the conductive vias. This may allow for processing of the entire stack at the same time. It also may be advantageous to have the top surface include a low-loss material, where electrical loss in the dielectric surface at the frequencies of interest as regards the device operation are reduced compared to other materials.
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The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the embodiment, the practical application or technical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable other of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein. It is therefore intended that the present invention not be limited to the exact forms and details described and illustrated but fall within the scope of the appended claims.
This invention was made with U.S. Government support. The U.S. Government has certain rights in this invention.