US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on May 6 for "Semiconductor device with self-aligned vias" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,293,944, issued on May 6, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Semiconductor device with self-aligned vias" was invented by Chien-Han Chen (Nantou, Taiwan), Chien-Chih Chiu (Xinying, Taiwan) and Ming-Chung Liang (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of forming a semiconductor device includes forming a conductive line over a substrate; forming an etch stop layer (ESL) over the conductive line, the ESL extending continuously along an upper surface of the conductive line and along an upper surface of a first dielectric layer adjacent to the conductive line, where a first lower su...