Patent ID: 7030495

Claim:
A nanocolumnar airbridge structure comprising: a substrate; at least one dielectric layer on a surface of said substrate; a set of line trenches having a trench bottom surface in said dielectric layer, the closest ones of said line trenches being separated by a ground rule distance; a nanometer-scale pattern transferred into the dielectric containing said line trenches; a bridge layer deposited over the surface of said dielectric layer to form a mechanical link between adjacent lines; a set of vias formed within said line trenches extending through said dielectric layer, said vias and said line trenches being lined with a liner layer and filled with a conductive fill metal to form a set of metal lines, wherein said metal lines and said liner layers are polished so that the metal is coplanar with the top of said bridge layer; and an electromigration and/or diffusion barrier for capping the top surfaces of said metal lines.