Patent ID: 9577026
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: H01L

Claim:
1. A method of forming a metal-insulator-metal capacitor, comprising: providing a first metal layer; providing a dielectric layer, consisting of high-K material, over the first metal layer; providing a second metal layer over the dielectric layer; etching downward fully through the second metal layer and, further downward, only partially through the dielectric layer, to define the metal-insulator-metal capacitor in which (i) the second metal layer has a sidewall that is newly-formed by the etching and that is at a first location, (ii) the dielectric layer includes both a sidewall and an upwardly-facing surface that are newly-formed by the etching, and (iii) the second metal layer's sidewall directly contacts, and extends upward from, the dielectric layer's sidewall; and oxidizing the sidewall of the second metal layer of the metal-insulator-metal capacitor, to produce an oxidized layer that is formed from the second metal layer's sidewall and is in place of the second metal layer's sidewall, wherein an interface between the oxidized layer and the second metal layer is located horizontally inward from the first location, and during the oxidizing, the dielectric layer remains consisting of the high-K material and the dielectric layer's sidewall remains below the first location.