ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,550,704, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to International Business Machines Corp. (Armonk, N.Y.).
"Subtractive skip via" was invented by Nicholas Anthony Lanzillo (Wynantskill, N.Y.), Koichi Motoyama (Clifton Park, N.Y.) and Lawrence A. Clevenger (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A semiconductor device includes a subtractive skip via technique in which a relatively high aspect ratio (HAR) skip via is fabricated within a lower aspect ratio (LAR) skip via opening. A metal fill is formed within the LAR skip via opening. Undesired portions of the metal fill region are removed, a retained portion or portion thereof forms ...