Patent 8062971 was granted and assigned to Infineon Technologies on November, 2011 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Structures and methods of forming metallization layers on a semiconductor component are disclosed. The method includes etching a metal line trench using a metal line mask, and etching a via trench using a via mask after etching the metal line trench. The via trench is etched only in regions common to both the metal line mask and the via mask.