{"schema_version":"1.0","canonical_url":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-9646931","patent":{"patent_number":"US-9646931","title":"Formation of liner and metal conductor","assignee":null,"inventors":[],"filing_date":"2016-07-22T00:00:00.000Z","publication_date":"2017-05-09T00:00:00.000Z","cpc_codes":["H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L","H01L"],"num_claims":9,"abstract":"In one aspect of the invention, a method for fabricating an advanced metal conductor structure includes a conductive line pattern including a set of conductive line trenches in a dielectric layer. Each conductive line trench of the conductive line pattern has parallel vertical sidewalls and a horizontal bottom. A surface treatment of the dielectric layer is performed. The surface treatment produces an element enriched surface layer in which a concentration of a selected element in a surface portion of the parallel sidewalls and horizontal bottoms of the conductive line trenches is increased. A first metal layer of a first metal having a first conductivity is deposited on the element enriched surface layer. A first thermal anneal is performed which simultaneously reflows the first metal layer to fill a first portion of the conductive line trenches and causes a chemical change at interfaces of the first metal layer and the element enriched surface layer creating a liner which is an alloy of the first metal and selected element. A portion of the non-reacted first metal is selectively removed. That portion of the first metal which has reacted to form the alloy liner on the patterned dielectric sidewall remains after the removal process. A second metal layer is deposited on the liner layer with a second metal on the liner and filling the conductive line trenches with the second metal layer. The second metal has a second conductivity higher than the first conductivity. A device fabricated by the method is another aspect of the invention."},"analysis":{"summary":null,"layman_explanation":null,"technical_analysis":null,"business_analysis":null,"faqs":null,"topics":[],"tech_cluster":null},"seo":{"title":"Formation of liner and metal conductor","description":"In one aspect of the invention, a method for fabricating an advanced metal conductor structure includes a conductive line pattern including a set of conductive line trenches in a dielectric layer. Eac","keywords":[]},"attribution":{"source":"Patentable","source_url":"https://patentable.app","canonical_url":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-9646931","license":"CC-BY-4.0-like","license_terms":"AI-generated analysis on this page (summary, layman_explanation, technical_analysis, business_analysis, faqs) may be reused with attribution and a visible link back to the canonical URL above. Patent abstracts, claims, and bibliographic data are USPTO public domain.","required_link":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-9646931","citation_suggestion":"Patentable. \"Formation of liner and metal conductor\" (US-9646931). https://patentable.app/patents/US-9646931","copyright_holder":"Nomic Interactive Technology LLC"},"links":{"html":"https://patentable.app/patents/US-9646931","json":"https://patentable.app/api/llm-context/US-9646931","site":"https://patentable.app","llms_txt":"https://patentable.app/llms.txt"},"generated_at":"2026-06-06T07:26:50.658Z"}