MARKER FOR ALIGNING NONTRANSPARENT GATE LAYERS, METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING SUCH MARKER, AND USE OF SUCH MARKER IN LITHOGRAPHIC APPARATUS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of manufacturing a marker structure including line elements and trench elements that are arranged sequentially and repeatedly. SOLUTION: The method includes a step of filling trench elements with a silicon dioxide to level the marker structure. A sacrificial oxide layer is grown on the surface of a semiconductor. A first subset of the line elements is exposed to an ion implantation beam including a dopant species to dope and change an etching rate of the first subset. The substrate is annealed to activate the dopant species, and the semiconductor surface is etched to remove the sacrificial oxide layer and to level the first subset to a first level and to create a topology such that the first subset has a first level differing from a second level of a suface portion of the marker structure different from the first subset. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT