Patent ID: 11935746
Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  B | IPC H

Claim 13:
14. A method of forming a semiconductor device, comprising:
forming a material layer on a substrate;
depositing a mask layer on the material layer, the mask layer having, as deposited, an internal stress value;
depositing a second mask layer on the mask layer, the second mask layer having, as deposited, a second internal stress value of the same magnitude as the internal stress value of the mask layer;
performing a thermal process to reduce the internal stress value of the mask layer; and
patterning the mask layer after the step of reducing the internal stress value of the mask layer, wherein the mask layer has, as deposited, tensile internal stress and has, during the patterning step, tensile internal stress.