A wafer including a substrate having a plurality of integrated circuits formed above the substrate, and at least one scribe line between two of the integrated circuits. The wafer further includes a plurality of dielectric layers formed in the at least one scribe line having a process control monitor (PCM) pad structure formed therein, the PCM pad structure having: a plurality of metal pads interconnected by a plurality of conductive vias. The PCM pad further includes a plurality of contact bars in contact with a bottom-most metal pad, the contact bars extending substantially vertically from the bottom-most metal pad into the substrate. Additionally, the PCM pad includes an isolation structure substantially surrounding the plurality of contact bars to isolate the PCM pad structure.