United Microelectronics Corp.

Ching-Long Tsai

Cheng-Yuan Hsu

Chi Ren

Wei Cheng

Zhen Chen

Zhaobing Li

Hua-Kuo Lee

Yunn-Ming Tsou

Ming Sheng Xu

Ping Liu

Guangjun Huang

A method of cleaning post-etch residues on a copper line includes providing a copper line which is divided into a first region and a second region. A dielectric layer is formed on the copper line. After that, the dielectric layer is etched to form openings in the dielectric layer. A number of openings within the first region is more than a number of openings in the second region. During the etching process, a potential difference is formed between the first region and the second region of the copper line. Finally, the dielectric layer and the copper line are cleaned by a solution with a PH value. The PH value has a special relation with the potential difference.

Method of cleaning post-etch residues on a copper line

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes the following steps. At first, two gate stack layers are formed on a semiconductor substrate, wherein each of the gate stack layers includes a top surface and two side surfaces. A conductive material layer is deposited to conformally cover the top surface and the two side surfaces of each of the gate stack layers. Then, a cap layer is deposited to conformally cover the conductive material layer. Finally, the cap layer and the conductive material layer above the top surface of each of the gate stack layers are removed to leave the cap layer adjacent to the two side surfaces of each of the gate stack layers and covering a portion of the conductive material layer.

Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof

A floating gate forming process includes the following steps. A substrate containing active areas isolated from each other by isolation structures protruding from the substrate is provided. A first conductive material is formed to conformally cover the active areas and the isolation structure. An etch back process is performed on the first conductive material to respectively form floating gates separated from each other in the active areas.

Floating gate forming process

A focused ion beam (FIB) is used to mill a test slice to form an observable wall for a transmission electron microscope (TEM). A slanting angle .theta. of the observable wall surface is automatically formed. The method for milling the test slice includes the following steps: The first step is to measure the slanting angle .theta.. The next step is to tilt the test slice with the slanting angle .theta. in both a counterclockwise direction and a clockwise direction and to perform FIB milling so that the TEM observable wall has a uniform thickness. Furthermore, during the FIB milling, an aperture in the TEM observable wall serves as a milling stop signal.

Method for milling a transmission electron microscope test slice

A method for preparing a specimen block for TEM analysis that uses target point breaking of an original specimen block into two separate blocks with one block containing the point targeted for analysis. Hence, over-polishing can be avoided and polishing time is saved. Furthermore, polishing is carried out by sandwiching the specimen block between sacrificial blocks supported by polish-resistant blocks below. With the polish-resistant blocks acting as a polishing stop layer, a fixed thickness instead of variable thickness will remain after the specimen is polished.

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Taipei, Taiwan

Ching-Long Tsai