Patent ID: 7964470

Claim:
A method for forming a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor, comprising: forming a capacitor bottom plate and a metal interconnect feature on a substrate, both the capacitor bottom plate and the metal interconnect feature being located in a single plane that is parallel with a major surface of the substrate; forming a dielectric layer to a predetermined thickness, the dielectric layer having a first portion overlying the capacitor bottom plate and having a second portion overlying the metal interconnect feature; processing the dielectric layer to adjust a thickness of the first portion of the dielectric layer relative to a thickness of the second portion of the dielectric layer, wherein at least a part of the second portion of the dielectric layer overlying the metal interconnect feature remains at least as thick as the predetermined thickness; and forming a capacitor top plate directly over and immediately adjacent the first portion of the dielectric layer, wherein a region between the capacitor top plate and the capacitor bottom plate is filled by only the dielectric layer.