Patent ID: 7863145

Claim:
A method for fabricating an LCOS device using a chemical mechanical polishing of mirror structures, the method comprising: providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a first dielectric layer overlying the semiconductor substrate; forming an silver metal layer overlying the dielectric layer, the silver metal layer having an upper surface with a predetermined roughness measured in RMS; patterning the silver metal layer to expose portions of the dielectric layer, the exposed portions forming borders surrounding one of a plurality of patterns of the patterned silver metal layer, the one of the plurality of patterns corresponding to a pixel element; forming a second dielectric layer overlying the silver metal layer and exposed portions of the dielectric layer; removing a portion of the second dielectric layer to a region within a vicinity of the upper surface of the patterned silver metal layer; and processing regions overlying the patterned silver metal layer using a polishing process to reduce a surface roughness of the upper surface of the patterned silver metal year to less than 5 Angstroms to form a mirror surface on the upper surface of the patterned silver metal layer, the mirror surface corresponding to the pixel element.