Patent ID: 7494912

Claim:
A method, comprising: forming an electrically conductive wire in a dielectric layer on a substrate, a top surface of said wire coplanar with a top surface of said dielectric layer, said wire comprising a conformal and electrically conductive liner and an electrically conductive core conductor; forming a terminal pad comprising an electrically conductive layer on a top surface of an electrically conductive barrier layer, said barrier layer on said top surface of said dielectric layer and all of said top surface of said wire, a bottom surface of said barrier layer in physical and electrical contact with said wire, said top surface of said conductive layer being a top surface of said terminal pad, said bottom surface of said barrier layer being a bottom surface of said terminal pad, a first perimeter defined by all sides of said wire aligned entirely within a second perimeter defined by all sides of said terminal pad; forming an electrically non-conductive passivation layer on said top surface of said dielectric layer and all exposed surfaces of said terminal pad, said passivation layer comprising a lower dielectric layer on said top surface of said dielectric layer and said all exposed surfaces of said terminal pad and an intermediate dielectric layer on a top surface of said lower dielectric layer; and forming a via in said passivation layer, said via extending from a top surface of said passivation layer to a top surface of said terminal pad.