Contact patterning
Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to patterning a material over a sense line contact are described. An example method includes forming a sense line contact pattern at an angle to a sense line direction over semiconductor structures on a substrate, wherein the angle to the sense line direction is formed along a path between a sense line contact in a first sense line column and a sense line contact in a second sense line column. The example method further includes removing a portion of a mask material corresponding to the sense line contact pattern to form sense line contacts.
1. A method comprising:
forming a mask material over active areas of sense line contacts for semiconductor structures on a substrate;
patterning the mask material at an angle to a sense line direction while not patterning the mask material over any portion of active areas of capacitor cell contacts, wherein:
the sense line direction is orthogonal to an orientation of access lines;
the patterned portion of the mask material is above active areas for sense line contacts, wherein the patterned portion of the mask material is a diagonal shape that extends from an active area for a sense line contact in a first sense line column to an active area for a sense line contact in a second sense line column; and
the first sense line column is adjacent the second sense line column; and
using a first etch to remove the patterned portion of the mask material to expose the active areas of the sense line contacts.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using the first etch to remove the portion of the mask material at the angle to the sense line direction to expose sense line contacts belonging to different sense lines along a direction of the patterned mask material.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using a second etch to remove a remaining amount of a material on the active areas of sense line contacts after the first etch.
4. A method comprising:
depositing a mask material over active areas of bit line (BL) contacts and active areas of capacitor cell (CC) contacts for semiconductor structures on a substrate;
patterning the mask material at an angle to a BL direction while not patterning the mask material over any portion of the active areas of capacitor cell contacts wherein:
the BL direction is orthogonal to an orientation of access lines;
the patterned portion of the mask material is above active areas for BL contacts,
wherein the patterned portion of the mask material is a diagonal shape that extends from an active area for a first BL contact in a first BL column to a second active area for a BL contact in a second BL column; and
the first BL column is adjacent the second BL column; and
etching the patterned portion of the mask material to expose the active areas of the BL contacts.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising forming the mask material out of silicon oxide.
6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising patterning the mask material using a photo mask.
7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising using double pitch patterning to pattern the mask material along the path of active areas for bit line contacts.
8. The method of claim 4 , further comprising depositing polysilicon into the etched portion of the mask material.
9. The method of claim 4 , wherein the access line is a word line.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising forming a first BL on an active area of a BL contact.
11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising forming the first BL to cover a contour of the active area of bit line contact.
12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising forming a second BL adjacent to the first BL.
13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising depositing a nitride to isolate the first BL from the second BL.