Patent ID: 8455298

Claim:
A method for forming a non-volatile rewritable memory device, the method comprising: over a conductive material, forming pillars of material surrounded by isolating material; forming substantially coplanar top surfaces of the pillars and the isolating material; at a first plurality of pillar locations, simultaneously etching the pillar material and the isolating material, the pillar material being etched at a greater rate than the isolating material to form recesses over the pillars; at the first plurality of pillar locations, filling the recesses and forming circuit elements including the filled recesses, each circuit element comprising a rectifying junction; at a second plurality of pillar locations different from the first plurality of pillar locations, simultaneously etching the pillar material and the isolating material, the pillar material being (i) etched at a greater rate than the isolating material and (ii) at least partially removed to form recesses; at the second plurality of pillar locations, filling the recesses with a conductor to form pillars each having an ohmic conductive path to the underlying conductive material; and over at least the second plurality of pillar locations, forming a layer of a second conductive material, the pillars in the second plurality of pillar locations forming via-connections between the second conductive material and the underlying conductive material.