Abstract: A method for reducing parasitic capacitance in semiconductor devices, particularly for the removal of raised portions of conductive layers overlying and capable of being capacitively coupled to other conductors in semiconductor memory integrated circuits. The method provides for the application of a masking or photoresist layer over the surface of a substrate containing portions of a conductor to be removed such that the masking layer completely covers the conductor. Next a uniform thickness of the masking layer is removed to expose only the raised portions of the conductor which are subsequently selectively etched through the remainder of the masking layer. Application of the method to a manufacturing process for a dynamic MOSFET memory array is also described in which bit sense line capacitance is substantially reduced.