Device fabrication

Claim 1

Process for fabricating a circuit comprising a plurality of interconnected devices said circuit being designed using design rules based on a minimum dimension of a maximum of 1 μm characterized in that said process comprises at least one set including two procedures, procedure 1 and procedure 2, said two procedures being carried out in the order stated, said two procedures not necessarily sequential; procedure 1 comprising patterning a surface of a body comprising device functional material by selectively irradiating portions of said surface so as to produce an irradiation pattern, said portions being altered by irradiation in terms of differentiation during procedure 2, procedure 2 comprising uniform exposing of at least a region of the irradiation-patterned surface, said region including irradiated as well as unirradiated material, to ambient which selectively modifies surface within said portions, in which said surface, prior to procedure 1, is free of masking material of a thickness greater than 100 Å, in which said surface prior to procedure 1 is covered with a masking layer consisting essentially of a reaction product resulting from reaction of said surface with a first reactant, and in which selective irradiation results in removal of portions of such layer in regions irradiated, in which said first reactant consists essentially of oxygen.