Patent attributes
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having an integrated metal shield. The shield, created as part of a MOSFET, is formed about a gate electrode of the MOSFET to effectively reduce drain-to-gate capacitance and increase breakdown voltage. The shield consists of a metallic shield contact via and a source contact extension. The metallic shield contact via, formed between the gate electrode and a drain region of the MOSFET, may be either a series of closely spaced vias or a wide continuous via. The metallic shield contact via is isolated from the surface of a semiconductor wafer by a shield isolation layer at one end. The metallic shield contact via is electrically coupled to the source contact extension at the other end. The source contact extension is metallic, and may be formed from the same metal used to create a source contact and a drain contact for the MOSFET.
