In a semiconductor device fabrication method and in a product formed according to the method, a photosensitive polyimide layer (PSPL) layer is applied to a semiconductor device in a manner which overcomes the limitations of the conventional approaches. The beneficial qualities of an added photoresist layer are utilized to avoid unwanted development of the underlying PSPL layer. In this manner, cracking of the PSPL layer is mitigated or eliminated, reducing the device soft error rate (SER) and increasing device yield. This is accomplished in a reliable and low-cost approach that employs standard device fabrication techniques.