Forming a contact in a thin-film device

1. A method of forming a contact in a thin-film device comprising:

forming a liftoff stencil;

depositing at least one material through the liftoff stencil;

removing a portion of the liftoff stencil;

forming a re-entrant profile with the remaining portion of the liftoff stencil; and

depositing a conductor material in contact with the at least one material on the re-entrant profile.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the thin-film device is a magnetic random access memory device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein forming the liftoff stencil further comprises:

utilizing at least one layer of photo-resist to form the liftoff stencil wherein the liftoff stencil includes an undercut.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein forming a re-entrant profile further comprises:

swelling a top portion of the at least one layer of photo-resist.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein depositing at least one material through the liftoff stencil further comprises:

depositing TMR junction material in contact with a previously deposited bottom conductor material.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the at least one layer of photo-resist further comprises a first layer of photo-resist and a second layer of photo-resist.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein forming the liftoff stencil further comprises:

utilizing a dielectric material to form a portion of the liftoff stencil.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein swelling a top portion of the at least one layer of photo-resist further comprises:

soaking the at least one layer of photo-resist in a chlorobenzene solution.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein swelling a top portion of the at least one layer of photo-resist further comprises:

annealing the at least one layer of photo-resist at a temperature sufficient to reflow the at least one layer of photo-resist.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein removing a portion of the liftoff stencil further comprises removing the first and second layers of photo-resist.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein a thickness of the dielectric material is more than a thickness of the at least one material.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the liftoff stencil comprises the at least one photo-resist material in contact with the dielectric material and forming a re-entrant profile further comprises:

depositing a layer of material over the at least one photo-resist material wherein the layer of material comprises at least one of SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , Si 3 N 4 or Ta 2 O 5 ;

soaking the liftoff stencil in a chlorobenzene solution.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the liftoff stencil comprises the at least one photo-resist material in contact with the dielectric material and forming a re-entrant profile further comprises:

depositing a layer of metal over the at least one photo-resist material;

oxidizing the metal layer; and

soaking the liftoff stencil in a chlorobenzene solution.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein depositing a conductor material further comprises:

utilizing a highly directional etch process to remove a portion of the oxidized metal layer;

removing the at least one layer of photo-resist; and

depositing a top conductor.

15. A method of forming a contact in a magnetic random access memory device comprising:

forming a liftoff stencil with at least two layers of photo-resist wherein the liftoff stencil includes an undercut;

depositing TMR junction material through the liftoff stencil in contact with a previously deposited bottom conductor;

depositing a hardmask layer through the liftoff stencil and in contact with the TMR junction material;

removing at least one of the at least two layers of photo-resist;

forming a re-entrant profile with a remaining portion of the liftoff stencil; and

depositing a top conductor material in contact with the hardmask layer on the re-entrant profile.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein forming a liftoff stencil further comprises:

utilizing a dielectric material to form the liftoff stencil.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein forming a re-entrant profile with a portion of the liftoff stencil further comprises:

swelling a top portion of one of the at least two layers of photo-resist.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein forming a re-entrant profile further comprises:

depositing a layer of material over the at least one photo-resist material wherein the layer of material comprises at least one of SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , Si 3 N 4 or Ta 2 O 5 ; and

soaking the liftoff stencil in a chlorobenzene solution.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the liftoff stencil comprises the at least one photo-resist material in contact with the dielectric material and forming a re-entrant profile further comprises:

depositing a layer of metal over the at least one photo-resist material;

oxidizing the metal layer; and

soaking the liftoff stencil in a chlorobenzene solution.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein swelling the top portion of one of the at least two layers of photo-resist further comprises:

soaking the one of the at least two layers of photo-resist in a chlorobenzene solution.

21. The method of 19 wherein depositing a conductor material further comprises:

utilizing a highly directional etch process to remove a portion of the oxidized metal layer;

removing the one of the at least two layers of photo-resist; and

depositing a top conductor.