Patent ID: 6936408

Claim:
A method for fabricating a microelectronic fabrication comprising: providing a substrate; forming over the substrate a topographic microelectronic layer comprising: a lower region formed nearer the substrate; and an upper region formed thereover, the topographic microelectronic layer having formed therein an aperture; depositing upon the topographic microelectronic layer and filling the aperture a blanket positive photoresist layer; photoexposing horizontally completely and vertically partially the blanket positive photoresist layer to form a partially photoexposed blanket positive photoresist layer and developing the partially photoexposed blanket positive photoresist layer to leave remaining a positive photoresist residue layer within the aperture but not covering the upper region; processing the upper region while employing a method selected from the group consisting of additive processing methods and modification processing methods, and while employing the positive photoresist residue layer as a protective layer within the aperture; and stripping the positive photoresist residue layer from within the aperture.