Patent 7538377 was granted and assigned to Elpida Memory on May, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In a cell contact pad method, a consecutive dummy cell contact pad intersecting with a cell gate electrode is formed at an outer peripheral portion of the memory cell array. The dummy cell contact pad blocks liquid and gas to intrude through a void, and prevents the cell contact pad from being decayed and having high resistivity.