Front end of line

The front-end-of-line (FEOL) is the first portion of IC fabrication where the individual devices (transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc.) are patterned in the semiconductor. 
FEOL generally covers everything up to (but not including) the deposition of metal interconnect layers.
For the CMOS process, FEOL contains all fabrication steps needed to form fully isolated CMOS elements: