Patent ID: 7569404

Claim:
A method for fabricating a portion of an ink-jet printhead, the method comprising: providing a silicon substrate having a surface; forming an isolation region on the substrate configured to electrically isolate active devices of the printhead; forming a transistor on the substrate separate from the isolation region by forming a gate with a gate oxide layer on the substrate surface, forming a source within the substrate below the gate oxide layer, and forming a drain within the substrate below the gate oxide layer; forming an electrical interconnect over the transistor gate; forming an insulating layer over the gate oxide layer, the electrical interconnect, and the isolation region; forming a single patterned photoresist mask over the insulating layer; etching active region contact vias through the insulating layer and the gate oxide layer to the source and drain while simultaneously etching a separate substrate contact via through the insulating layer and the isolation region to the substrate in a single etching step; and forming an ink drop generator on the substrate at an ink heater resistor location associated with the transistor.