The present disclosure provides a method of making an integrated circuit (IC) device. The method includes forming a first IC feature and a second IC feature in a semiconductor substrate, the first and second IC features being spaced from each other and separated by a scribe region; forming, in the semiconductor substrate, a doped routing feature at least partially within the scribe region and configured to connect the first and second IC features; forming a multilayer interconnect (MLI) structure and an interlayer dielectric (ILD) on the semiconductor substrate, wherein the MLI is configured to be absent within the scribe region; and etching the ILD and the semiconductor substrate within the scribe region to form a scribe-line trench.