Patent ID: 6984529

Claim:
A method of fabricating a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) device, comprising: providing an initial structure comprising: an underlying layer; a bottom tantalum nitride layer over the underlying layer, a tantalum layer over the bottom tantalum nitride layer, an MTJ stack over the tantalum layer, a tantalum nitride cap layer over the MTJ stack, a titanium layer over the tantalum nitride cap layer, a titanium nitride layer over the titanium layer, and a patterned photoresist layer over the titanium nitride layer; etching through a majority of the titanium nitride layer with a first etch recipe; etching through a remainder of the titanium nitride layer and a first portion of the titanium layer with a second etch recipe; removing the photoresist layer; etching through a remainder of the titanium layer and at least a majority of the tantalum nitride cap layer with a third etch recipe; oxidizing the titanium nitride layer, the titanium layer, and the tantalum nitride cap layer to form a surface oxide thereon; etching the MTJ stack with a fourth etch recipe; and etching the tantalum layer and the bottom tantalum nitride layer with a fifth etch recipe.