Semiconductor structures and methods of fabrication are provided. A semiconductor structure includes an interconnect structure lying over a semiconductor substrate and having a top metal feature; a pad lying over the interconnect structure; and an extended conductive line having a proximal end electrically connected to the pad and extending to a distal end, wherein the extended conductive line include a proximal portion extending in a first direction and a non-proximal portion extending in second direction transverse to the first direction, and wherein the extended conductive line is electrically connected to the top metal feature.

Etch uniformity is improved by providing a thermal pad between an insert ring and electrostatic chuck in an etching chamber. The thermal pad provides a continuous passive heat path to dissipate heat from the insert ring and wafer edge to the electrostatic chuck. The thermal pad helps to keep the temperature of the various components in contact with or near the wafer at a more consistent temperature. Because temperature may affect etch rate, such as with etching hard masks over dummy gate formations, a more consistent etch rate is attained. The thermal pad also provides for etch rate uniformity across the whole wafer and not just at the edge. The thermal pad may be used in an etch process to perform gate replacement by removing hard mask layer(s) over a dummy gate electrode.

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor structure includes: forming an interconnect level structure having a first device region, a first side region aside the first device region, a second device region and a second side region aside the second device region; forming a dielectric layer over the interconnect structure, the dielectric layer including a first dielectric portion, a second dielectric portion, a first patterned portion and a second patterned portion that are respectively formed over the first device region, the second device region, the first side region, and the second side region, the first patterned portion and the second patterned portion being formed with different patterns; performing a planarization process on the dielectric layer; forming first recesses and second recesses respectively in the planarized first dielectric portion and the planarized second dielectric portion; and forming contact portion respectively in the first recesses and the second recesses.

A semiconductor structure includes a first dielectric layer, a first via and a second via disposed in the first dielectric layer, a second dielectric layer disposed over the first dielectric layer, the first via, and the second via, a first conductive line disposed on the first via and in a bottom portion of the second dielectric layer, a second conductive line disposed on the second via and in the bottom portion of the second dielectric layer, a first barrier layer extending along sidewalls and a top surface of the first conductive line, and a second barrier layer extending along sidewalls and a top surface of the second conductive line. The bottom portion of the second dielectric layer includes an air gap between the first conductive line and the second conductive line.

The present disclosure, in some embodiments, relates to an integrated chip. The integrated chip includes a dielectric stack disposed over a substrate. The dielectric stack has a first plurality of layers interleaved between a second plurality of layers. The dielectric stack has one or more surfaces that define a plurality of indentations recessed into a side of the dielectric stack at different vertical heights corresponding to the second plurality of layers. A capacitor structure lines the one or more surfaces of the dielectric stack. The capacitor structure includes conductive electrodes separated by a capacitor dielectric.

A method includes forming a plurality of first semiconductor channel layers stacked in a vertical direction over a substrate; forming a first gate strip surrounding each of the first semiconductor channel layers; forming a plurality of first source/drain regions on either side of each of the first semiconductor channel layers; forming a front-side source/drain contact over a front-side of a first one of the first source/drain regions; forming a first back-side source/drain contact over a back-side of a second one of the first source/drain regions, wherein a front-side of the second one of the first source/drain regions is free of a metal contact; forming a signal line over the front-side source/drain contact; forming a power supply voltage line over the first back-side source/drain contact.

A microelectronic device includes a stack structure having a vertically alternating sequence of conductive structures and insulating structures arranged in tiers. The stack structure further includes a first block having first stadium structures having steps having horizontal ends of the tiers, an arrangement of the first stadium structures ascending from a lowermost first stadium structure to an uppermost first stadium structure in a first horizontal direction and a second block neighboring the first block in a second horizontal direction orthogonal to the first horizontal direction and having second stadium structures having additional steps having additional horizontal ends of the tiers, an arrangement of second stadium structures descending from an uppermost second stadium structure to a lowermost second stadium structure in the first horizontal direction. Related methods and electronic systems are also disclosed.