Damascene Etcher — chew the trenches, fill with copper, stack the next layer

A back-end-of-line maze game: you are the etch front in a dual-damascene flow. Clear every oxide cell of the routing pattern and open every via before a defect finds you. Vias take several passes — and you move at half speed while etching one.

layer M1
score 0
oxide left 0
vias 0/0
wafers ●●●
die yield 100%
move: ←→↑↓ or WASD  ·  space start / pause  ·  P pause  ·  R restart  ·  M sound click the board first if the keys do nothing

Legend

ILD oxide to etch photoresist / hard mask (blocked) etch front (you) via — several passes to open copper from the layer below defects: particle, residue, arc, corrosion endpoint detector (power-up) already etched trench
←→↑↓ or WASD to steer  ·  P pause  ·  M sound  ·  R restart. The wafer edge wraps left–right on the middle row.

Dual-damascene flow

  • 1 · deposit ILD oxide
  • 2 · litho: pattern trenches + vias
  • 3 · plasma etch (you are here)
  • 4 · strip resist, clean
  • 5 · Ta/TaN barrier + Cu seed
  • 6 · electroplate copper
  • 7 · CMP planarise
  • 8 · next level: repeat

Metal stack built so far

Process log

This layer

routing pattern—
vias to open—
defects on the wafer—
etch rate—
endpoint detectors—
layers completed0