Multi-line Contact Plug for Semiconductor Wiring
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Solution Overview
Problem
In semiconductor devices with fine wiring dimensions, ensuring sufficient contact fringe and preventing short circuits between adjacent wiring lines is challenging due to limited photolithography resolution and size constraints, leading to positioning errors and increased wiring resistance.
Innovation Solution
The semiconductor device features a contact plug that connects multiple adjacent first wiring lines to a second wiring line, with a larger thickness and size to accommodate the width difference, reducing capacitance and resistance, and is fabricated to span multiple wiring lines to prevent short circuits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of moving object
If wiring lines are made with fine dimensions to reduce device size, then device integration is improved, but contact fringe sufficiency and short circuit prevention deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple adjacent first wiring lines are merged into a single contact plug structure. The contact plug spans across several first wiring lines (e.g., three lines) and connects them collectively to a second wiring line, creating a merged connection structure that ensures sufficient contact area while maintaining fine wiring dimensions.
2Area of moving object
If wiring lines are made with fine dimensions, then device integration is improved, but short circuit prevention deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The contact plug is segmented to connect to multiple separate first wiring lines simultaneously. By dividing the connection function across multiple lines, the structure reduces the risk of short circuits between adjacent lines while maintaining fine wiring dimensions through the segmented contact approach.
3Reliability
If contact plug size is increased to ensure sufficient contact area, then contact reliability is improved, but wiring pattern periodicity and short circuit prevention deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The contact plug extends in the lateral dimension to span multiple wiring lines rather than increasing size in a single dimension. This dimensional approach maintains the periodicity of the wiring pattern by distributing the contact across multiple lines while ensuring sufficient contact area through the extended span.
Data Source
AI summary
A semiconductor device comprises: a plurality of first wiring lines formed in a first layer with a first wiring width and a first wiring space; a plurality of second wiring lines formed in a second layer different from the above-described first layer with a second wiring width and a second wiring space larger than the above-described first wiring width and first wiring space; and a contact plug connecting the first wiring line and second wiring line. The above-described contact plug is formed over a plurality of adjacent ones of the above-described first wiring lines and has a pattern connecting the plurality of adjacent ones of the above-described first wiring lines and one of the above-described second wiring lines.