Patent 7531415 was granted and assigned to Texas Instruments on May, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A three layer film (116/114/112), such as nitride/oxide/nitride for a CMP stop layer (110). A gap filling material (120) is polished, stopping on the first film (112). The first film (112) is then stripped using an etch chemistry that is selective against removing the second film (114). CMP is then continued stopping on the third film (116).