US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on March 17 for "Interconnect structure with protective etch-stop" (Taiwanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,581,928, issued on March 17, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Interconnect structure with protective etch-stop" was invented by Shao-Kuan Lee (Kaohsiung, Taiwan), Hai-Ching Chen (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Hsin-Yen Huang (New Taipei, Taiwan), Shau-Lin Shue (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and Cheng-Chin Lee (Taipei, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An integrated chip includes a first metal line disposed over a substrate. A via is disposed directly over a top of the first metal line and the via has a first lower surface and a second lower surface above the first lower surface. A first dielectric structure is d...