Patent 7071126 was granted and assigned to Intel on July, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An interlayer dielectric may be exposed to a gas cluster ion beam to densify an upper layer of the interlayer dielectric. As a result, the upper layer of the interlayer dielectric may be densified without separate deposition steps and without the need for etch stops that may adversely affect the capacitance of the overall structure.