US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Jan. 27 for "Low-k dielectric damage prevention" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,538,775, issued on Jan. 27, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Low-k dielectric damage prevention" was invented by Chen-Yi Lee (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Chia-Lin Hsu (Tainan, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure describes a method for forming a nitrogen-rich protective layer within a low-k layer of a metallization layer to prevent damage to the low-k layer from subsequent processing operations. The method includes forming, on a substrate, a metallization layer having conductive structures in a low-k dielectric. The method further includes forming a capping layer on the cond...