Intersecting Metal Wiring Layout to Prevent Voids and Discontinuity
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing wiring structures in vertical memory devices often experience deteriorated electrical characteristics due to increased width and discontinuity at intersections, leading to voids and cut portions.
Innovation Solution
A wiring structure comprising a first, second, and third metal pattern, where the third pattern is connected to the first and second patterns at their intersection, with a substantially rectangular shape and concave portions, ensuring a minimum width that is equal to or less than the smaller of the first and second widths, and an insulation spacer covering the sidewall, preventing voids and improving electrical continuity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If metal wirings extend in respective directions crossing each other at a right angle, then the wiring structure can connect multiple directions, but the width increases and discontinuity occurs at the intersection region
Solution Approach 1:
The third metal pattern is divided into multiple segments with concave portions removed from each quadrant. This segmentation allows the wiring to maintain continuity while reducing the width at intersection regions, preventing the discontinuity and void formation that occurs in conventional continuous rectangular patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The third metal pattern employs asymmetric concave portions that are strategically positioned to create varying widths across different quadrants. This asymmetric design optimizes the wiring path to maintain connectivity while avoiding the uniform width problem that causes discontinuity in conventional symmetric rectangular patterns.
2Ease of manufacture
If the third metal pattern has a rectangular shape at the intersection, then the wiring structure is simple to manufacture, but voids and cut portions occur leading to deteriorated electrical characteristics
Solution Approach 1:
The concave portions are pre-designed and pre-positioned in the third metal pattern before the actual wiring formation process. This preliminary action prevents void formation and ensures continuous electrical connection by removing material that would otherwise create discontinuity at the intersection of the first and second metal patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The third metal pattern has different local qualities with concave portions created at specific quadrants where the first and second metal patterns intersect. This local modification maintains the overall rectangular simplicity for manufacturing while creating specific regions with reduced width to prevent voids and ensure electrical continuity.
Data Source
AI summary
A wiring structure includes first to third metal patterns on a substrate. The first metal pattern extends in a second direction and has a first width in a third direction. The second metal pattern extends in the third direction to cross the first metal pattern and have a second width in the second direction. The third metal pattern is connected to the first and second metal patterns at an area where the first and second metal patterns cross each other, and has a substantially rectangular shape with concave portions in each quadrant. The third metal pattern has a third width defined as a minimum distance between opposite ones of the concave portions in a fourth direction having an acute angle to the second and third directions, which is less or equal to than a smaller of the first and second widths.