Patent ID: 8507988

Claim:
A high voltage (HV) device comprising: a gate dielectric structure over a substrate, the gate dielectric structure having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion having a first thickness and being over a first well region of a first dopant type in the substrate, the second portion having a second thickness and being over a second well region of a second dopant type, the first thickness being larger than the second thickness; a gate electrode disposed over the gate dielectric structure; a dielectric layer directly on at least a portion of an upper surface of the gate electrode; a metallic layer directly on the dielectric layer and electrically coupled with the gate electrode, the metallic layer extending along a direction of a channel under the gate dielectric structure; and at least one source/drain (S/D) region disposed within the first well region of the first dopant type, wherein the metallic layer has a first edge, the gate electrode has a second edge, and the at least one S/D region has a third edge, the first edge is directly over a gap region defined by the second edge and the third edge, and the gate electrode and the at least one S/D region are positioned outside the gap region.