Patent ID: 8765592

Claim:
A method for contacting a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) device, comprising: patterning a first photosensitive material using a first contact mask to generate a first opening in said first photosensitive material over a semiconductor surface of a substrate having a top dielectric thereon in a first die area, and a second opening over a gate stack in a second die area having said top dielectric on a hard mask layer on a gate electrode; etching through said top dielectric layer exposed by said first opening to form a semiconductor contact in said semiconductor surface while etching at least a portion of a thickness of said hard mask layer over a gate contact area exposed by said second opening; depositing an inter-layer dielectric (ILD); patterning a second photosensitive material over said ILD using a second contact mask to generate a third opening in said second photosensitive material over said semiconductor contact and a fourth opening inside said gate contact area, and etching through said ILD to reopen said semiconductor contact while etching through said ILD to provide a gate contact to said gate electrode.