US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on March 17 for "Metal nitride diffusion barrier and methods of formation" (California Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,581,924, issued on March 17, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Metal nitride diffusion barrier and methods of formation" was invented by Martin Christopher Holland (San Jose, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Metal nitride diffusion barriers may be included between cobalt-based structures and ruthenium-based structures to reduce, minimize, and/or prevent intermixing of cobalt into ruthenium. A metal nitride diffusion barrier layer may include a cobalt nitride (CoNx), a ruthenium nitride (RuNx), or another metal nitride that has a bond dissociation energy greater than the bond dissociatio...