Method of making electrical contacts to gate structures in integrated circuits

Claim 1

A method of integrated circuit manufacture comprising the steps of making a plurality of field-effect transistors, each comprising source and drain regions and a gate structure, and being disposed on a common substrate and making an electrical contact to at least said gate structure of at least one of said field effect transistors, said step of making an electrical contact comprising the further steps of forming first, second, third, and fourth insulating layers having first, second, third, and fourth compositions, respectively, over said plurality of said field-effect transistors, adjacent layers having different etching characteristics; patterning a resist over said fourth layer to expose selected portions of said fourth layer, at least one of said portions being generally over at least said gate structure of a first transistor; etching said exposed portions of said fourth and third layers to form windows which expose portions of said second layer; forming sidewalls on said windows; etching said exposed portions of said second and first layers using said sidewalls and said second layer, respectively, as etch masks to expose at least said gate structure; and, forming a patterned conductor region contacting at least gate structure of said first transistor.

Claim 2

A method of integrated circuit manufacture comprising the steps of making a plurality of field-effect transistors, each comprising source and drain regions and a gate structure, and being disposed on a common substrate and making an electrical contact to at least said gate structure of at least one of said field effect transistors, said step of making an electrical contact comprising the further steps of forming first, second, third, and fourth insulating layers having first, second, third, and fourth compositions, respectively, over said plurality of said field-effect transistors, adjacent layers having different etching characteristics; patterning a resist over said fourth layer to expose selected portions of said fourth layer, at least one of said portions being generally over at least said gate structure of a first transistor; etching said exposed portions of said fourth and third layers to form windows which expose portions of said second layer; forming sidewalls on said windows; etching said exposed portions of said second and first layers using said sidewalls and said second layer, respectively, as etch masks to expose at least said gate structure; and, forming a patterned conductor region contacting at least gate structure of said first transistor.