Globalfoundries Inc.

Ashish Kumar Jha

Haiting Wang

Min-Hwa Chi

Hong Yu

Zhenyu Hu

Xusheng Kevin Wu

Yong Meng Lee

Yanping Shen

Wei Hong

Edmund Kenneth Banghart

Xinyuan Dou

Wei Zhao

Chih-Chiang Chang

Songkram Srivathanakul

Hui Zhan

Chang Ho Maeng

Wei Hua Tong

Mitchell Rutkowski

Yan Ping Shen

Tae-Hoon Kim

Tae Hoon Lee

Meng Luo

Dongil Choi

Edward Reis

Charles Vanleuvan

Md Khaled Hassan

Tae Jeong Lee

The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to selective shallow trench isolation (STI) fill material for stress engineering in semiconductor structures and methods of manufacture. The structure includes a single diffusion break (SDB) region having at least one shallow trench isolation (STI) region with a stress fill material within a recess of the at least one STI region. The stress fill material imparts a stress on a gate structure adjacent to the at least one STI region.

Selective shallow trench isolation (STI) fill for stress engineering in semiconductor structures

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes the formation of an oxide spacer layer to modify the critical dimension of a gate cut opening in connection with a replacement metal gate process. The oxide spacer layer is deposited after etching a gate cut opening in an overlying hard mask such that the oxide spacer layer is deposited onto sidewall surfaces of the hard mask within the opening and directly over the top surface of a sacrificial gate. The oxide spacer may also be deposited into recessed regions within an interlayer dielectric located adjacent to the sacrificial gate. By filling the recessed regions with an oxide, the opening of trenches through the oxide spacer layer and the interlayer dielectric to expose source/drain junctions can be simplified.

Gate cut method

A shallow trench isolation (STI) structure is formed from a conventional STI trench structure formed of first dielectric material extending into the substrate. The conventional STI structure undergoes further processing, including removing a first portion of the dielectric material and adjacent portions of the semiconductor substrate to create a first recess, and then removing another portion of the dielectric material to create a second recess in just the dielectric material. A nitride layer is formed above remaining dielectric material and on the sidewalls of the substrate. A second dielectric material is formed on the spacer layer and fills the remainder of first and second recesses. The nitride layer provides an 'inner spacer' between the first insulating material and the second insulating material and also separates the substrate from the second insulating material. An isotropic Fin reveal process is performed and the STI structure assists in equalizing fin heights and increasing active S/D region area/volume.

STI inner spacer to mitigate SDB loading

Methods of forming a sacrificial gate cap and a self-aligned contact for a device structure. A gate electrode is arranged between a first sidewall spacer and a second sidewall spacer. A top surface of the gate electrode is recessed to open a space above the top surface of the recessed gate electrode that partially exposes the first and second sidewall spacers. Respective sections of the first and second sidewall spacers, which are arranged above the top surface of the recessed gate electrode, are removed in order to increase a width of the space. A sacrificial cap is formed in the widened space.

Enlarged sacrificial gate caps for forming self-aligned contacts

A method of removing RMG sidewall layers, and the resulting device are provided. Embodiments include forming a TiN layer in nFET and pFET RMG trenches; forming an a-Si layer over the TiN layer; implanting Overtically in the a-Si layer; removing the a-Si layer and TiN layer from the side surfaces of the RMG trenches followed by the a-Si layer from the bottom surfaces; forming a TiN layer in the RMG trenches; forming a a-Si layer over the TiN layer; implanting Overtically in the a-Si layer; removing the a-Si layer and TiN layer from the side surfaces of the RMG trenches, the a-Si layer from the bottom surfaces, and a remainder of the TiN layer from only the nFET RMG trench; forming a Ti layer in the RMG trenches; implanting Al or C in the Ti layer vertically and annealing; and filling the RMG trenches with Al or W.

Methods to thin down RMG sidewall layers for scalability of gate-last planar CMOS and FinFET technology

Methods of fabricating transistors having raised active region(s) with at least partially angled upper surfaces are provided. The method includes, for instance: providing a gate structure disposed over a substrate, the gate structure including a conformal spacer layer; forming a raised active region adjoining a sidewall of the conformal spacer layer; providing a protective material over the raised active region; selectively etching-back the sidewall of the conformal spacer layer, exposing a side portion of the raised active region below the protective material; and etching the exposed side portion of the raised active region to partially undercut the protective material, wherein the etching facilitates defining, at least in part, an at least partially angled upper surface of the raised active region of the transistor.

Fabricating transistor(s) with raised active regions having angled upper surfaces

Methods for controlling the length of a replacement metal gate to a designed target gate length and the resulting device are disclosed. Embodiments may include removing a dummy gate from above a substrate forming a cavity, wherein side surfaces of the cavity are lined with an oxidized spacer layer and a bottom surface of the cavity is lined with a gate oxide layer, conformally forming a sacrificial oxide layer over the substrate and the cavity, and removing the sacrificial oxide layer from the bottom surface of the cavity and the substrate leaving sacrificial oxide spacers lining the side surfaces of the cavity.

Using sacrificial oxide layer for gate length tuning and resulting device

In general, aspects of the present invention relate to approaches for forming a semiconductor device such as a FET with reduced gate stack height variance. Specifically, when a gate stack height variance is detected/identified between a set of gate stacks, a hard mask layer and sets of spacers are removed from the uneven gate stacks leaving behind (among other things) a set of dummy gates. A liner layer and an inter-layer dielectric are formed over the set of dummy gates. The liner layer is then removed from a top surface (or at least a portion thereof) of the set of dummy gates, and the set of dummy gates are then removed. The result is a set of gate regions having less height variance/disparity.

Reducing gate height variance during semiconductor device formation

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Saratoga Springs, NY, United States of America

Ashish Kumar Jha