Semiconductor device and method

The invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method. In an embodiment, the method includes: forming a first inter-metal dielectric (IMD) layer over a semiconductor substrate; forming a bottom electrode layer over the first IMD layer; forming a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) film stack over the bottom electrode layer; forming a first top electrode layer over the MTJ film stack; forming a protective mask covering a first region of the first top electrode layer, a second region of the first top electrode layer being uncovered by the protective mask; forming a second top electrode layer over the protective mask and the first top electrode layer; and patterning the second top electrode layer, the first top electrode layer, the MTJ film stack, the bottom electrode layer, and the first IMD layer with an ion beam etching (IBE) process to form a MRAM cell, where the protective mask is etched during the IBE process. 本公开涉及半导体器件及方法。在一个实施例中，一种方法包括：在半导体衬底上方形成第一金属间电介质(IMD)层；在第一IMD层上方形成底部电极层；在底部电极层上方形成磁性隧道结(MTJ)薄膜堆叠