New process damage during the etching of small-contact on long floating conductor layer

We observed a new plasma process-induced damage during the contact etching on the long poly-silicon resistor. Plasma charging during the small contact etching is believed to form a non-conducting film layer in the contact area resulting in a failure of circuit operation. A chain structure with 200 pieces of 5 K/spl Omega/ small poly-silicon resistors instead of a single 1 M/spl Omega/ resistor could solve the problem. An antenna rule on the conductor layer is required for the small contact etching process to prevent the process damage.