PROCESS FOR BEVELING A METAL LAYER IN AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

摘要

In a process for beveling the sharp corners on an integrated circuit metal layer (2), a photoresist mask (12) used to etch a pattern in a lower level metal layer (2) is retained on the wafer during the beveling operation. With a positive photoresist (12) and an aluminum alloy metal lower level layer (2), an etch with an alkaline photoresist solvent isotropically removes both photoresist and metal, the photoresist (12) being removed at a faster rate than the metal (2). Beveling of the metal corners suppresses the reentry effect otherwise encountered when subsequent dielectric material (16) is deposited over the lower level metal layer (2).