Intel Corporation

Tahoe Research, Ltd.

Intel Corporatiion

Christopher J Jezewski

Kevin Lai Lin

Abhishek A Sharma

Mauro J Kobrinsky

Gilbert W Dewey

Manish Chandhok

Matthew V Metz

Hui Jae Yoo

Willy Rachmady

James S Clarke

Aaron D Lilak

Ashish Agrawal

Anh Phan

Ravi Pillarisetty

Elijah V Karpov

Brian S Doyle

Anand S Murthy

Patrick R Morrow

Rishabh Mehandru

Noriyuki Sato

Kevin O'Brien

Jack T Kavalieros

Tahir Ghani

Van H Le

Alan M Myers

James M Blackwell

Robert S Chau

Marko Radosavljevic

Ian A Young

Benjamin Chu-Kung

Kelin J Kuhn

Cheng-Ying Huang

John Stephen Guzek

Kimin Jun

Florian Gstrein

David J Michalak

Richard E Schenker

Sairam Agraharam

Ehren Mannebach

Tanay Gosavi

Dmitri E Nikonov

Seung Hoon Sung

Dinesh Somasekhar

Kaan Oguz

Oleg Golonzka

Harold W Kennel

Jeanette M Roberts

Carl H Naylor

Ramanan Chebiam

Tejaswi K Indukuri

Urusa Alaan

Tristan A Tronic

Jasmeet S Chawla

Colin T Carver

Miriam Ruth Reshotko

Jeffery D Bielefeld

Nafees Kabir

Kanwal Jit Singh

John J Plombon

Justin R Weber

Arnab Sen Gupta

Jessica M Torres

Flavio Griggio

Michael Christenson

Jiun-Ruey Chen

Nick Lindert

Nazila Haratipour

Lawrence D Wong

I-Cheng Tung

Swaminathan Sivakumar

Chia-Ching Lin

Kevin X Zhang

Scott Bruce Clendenning

Joseph M Steigerwald

Eungnak Han

Elliot Tan

Sean W King

Timothy E Glassman

Satyarth Suri

Steven J Keating

Gopinath Bhimarasetti

Patricio E Romero

Chi-Hwa Tsang

Daniel Pantuso

Siddharth Chouksey

Gurpreet Singh

Sridhar Balakrishnan

Daniel B Bergstrom

Benjamin Buford

Thomas N Marieb

Srijit Mukherjee

Sudarat Lee

Sarah Atanasov

Richard F Vreeland

Rohan N Akolkar

Zhiyong Ma

Albert Chen

Daniel J Zierath

Ralph Thomas Troeger

Nathan Strutt

Integrated circuit interconnect structures including an interconnect line metallization feature subjected to one or more chalcogenation techniques to form a cap may reduce line resistance. A top portion of a bulk line material may be advantageously crystallized into a metal chalcogenide cap with exceptionally large crystal structure. Accordingly, chalcogenation of a top portion of a bulk material can lower scattering resistance of an interconnect line relative to alternatives where the bulk material is capped with an alternative material, such as an amorphous dielectric or a fine grained metallic or graphitic material.

Interconnect line structures with metal chalcogenide cap materials

IC interconnect structures including subtractively patterned features. Feature ends may be defined through multiple patterning of multiple cap materials for reduced misregistration. Subtractively patterned features may be lines integrated with damascene vias or with subtractively patterned vias, or may be vias integrated with damascene lines or with subtractively patterned lines. Subtractively patterned vias may be deposited as part of a planar metal layer and defined currently with interconnect lines. Subtractively patterned features may be integrated with air gap isolation structures. Subtractively patterned features may be include a barrier material on the bottom, top, or sidewall. A bottom barrier of a subtractively patterned features may be deposited with an area selective technique to be absent from an underlying interconnect feature. A barrier of a subtractively patterned feature may comprise graphene or a chalcogenide of a metal in the feature or in a seed layer.

Subtractively patterned interconnect structures for integrated circuits

Integrated circuitry interconnect structures comprising a first metal and a graphene cap over a top surface of the first metal. Within the interconnect structure an amount of a second metal, nitrogen, or silicon is greater proximal to an interface of the graphene cap. The presence of the second metal, nitrogen, or silicon may improve adhesion of the graphene to the first metal and/or otherwise improve electromigration resistance of a graphene capped interconnect structure. The second metal, nitrogen, or silicon may be introduced into the first metal during deposition of the first metal, or during a post-deposition treatment of the first metal. The second metal, nitrogen, or silicon may be introduced prior to, or after, capping the first metal with graphene.

Integrated circuit interconnect structures with graphene cap

An embodiment includes a metal interconnect structure, comprising: a dielectric layer disposed on a substrate; an opening in the dielectric layer, wherein the opening has sidewalls and exposes a conductive region of at least one of the substrate and an interconnect line; an adhesive layer, comprising manganese, disposed over the conductive region and on the sidewalls; and a fill material, comprising cobalt, within the opening and on a surface of the adhesion layer. Other embodiments are described herein.

Cobalt based interconnects and methods of fabrication thereof

Low resistance and reduced reactivity approaches for fabricating contacts, and semiconductor structures having low resistance metal contacts, are described. In an example, an integrated circuit structure includes a semiconductor structure above a substrate. A gate electrode is over the semiconductor structure, the gate electrode defining a channel region in the semiconductor structure. A first semiconductor source or drain structure is at a first end of the channel region at a first side of the gate electrode. A second semiconductor source or drain structure is at a second end of the channel region at a second side of the gate electrode, the second end opposite the first end. A source or drain contact is on the first or second semiconductor source or drain structure, the source or drain contact including an alloyed metal barrier layer and an inner conductive structure.

Low resistance and reduced reactivity approaches for fabricating contacts and the resulting structures

Embodiments of the invention describe low capacitance interconnect structures for semiconductor devices and methods for manufacturing such devices. According to an embodiment of the invention, a low capacitance interconnect structure comprises an interlayer dielectric (ILD). First and second interconnect lines are disposed in the ILD in an alternating pattern. The top surfaces of the first interconnect lines may be recessed below the top surfaces of the second interconnect lines. Increases in the recess of the first interconnect lines decreases the line-to-line capacitance between neighboring interconnects. Further embodiments include utilizing different dielectric materials as etching caps above the first and second interconnect lines. The different materials may have a high selectivity over each other during an etching process. Accordingly, the alignment budget for contacts to individual interconnect lines is increased.

Method of forming high density, high shorting margin, and low capacitance interconnects by alternating recessed trenches

Methods for fabricating metallization stacks with one or more self-aligned staggered metal lines, and related semiconductor devices, are disclosed. Methods and devices are based on providing a spacer material conformal to bottom metal lines of a first layer of a metallization stack. By carefully designing parameters of the deposition process, the spacer material may be deposited in such a manner that, for each pair of adjacent bottom metal lines of the first layer, an opening in the spacer material is formed in a layer above the bottom metal lines (i.e., in the second layer of the metallization stack), the opening being substantially equidistant to the adjacent bottom metal lines of the first layer. Top metal lines are formed by filling the openings with an electrically conductive material, resulting in the top metal lines being self-aligned and staggered with respect to the bottom metal lines.

Metallization stacks with self-aligned staggered metal lines

An aspect of the disclosure relates to an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a first electrically conductive structure, a thin film crystal layer located on the first electrically conductive structure, and a second electrically conductive structure including metal e.g. copper. The second electrically conductive structure is located on the thin film crystal layer. The first electrically conductive structure is electrically connected to the second electrically conductive structure through the thin film crystal layer. The thin film crystal layer may be provided as a copper diffusion barrier.

Integrated circuits and methods for forming thin film crystal layers

Embodiments disclosed herein include complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices and methods of forming CMOS devices. In an embodiment, a CMOS device comprises a first transistor with a first conductivity type, where the first transistor comprises a first source region and a first drain region, and a first metal over the first source region and the first drain region. In an embodiment, the CMOS device further comprises a second transistor with a second conductivity type opposite form the first conductivity type, where the second transistor comprises a second source region and a second drain region, a second metal over the second source region and the second drain region, and the first metal over the second metal.

Dual contact process with stacked metal layers

Integrated circuit interconnect structures including an interconnect metallization feature with a barrier material comprising a metal and a chalcogen. Introduction of the chalcogen may improve diffusion barrier properties at a given barrier material layer thickness with increasing the barrier layer thickness. A barrier material, such as TaN, may be deposited at minimal thickness, and doped with a chalcogen before or after one or more fill materials are deposited over the barrier material. During thermal processing mobile chalcogen impurities may collect within regions within the barrier material to high enough concentrations for at least a portion of the barrier material to be converted into a metal chalcogenide layer. The metal chalcogenide layer may have greater crystallinity than a remainder of the barrier layer.

Integrated circuit interconnect structures with ultra-thin metal chalcogenide barrier materials

Stacked transistor structures having a conductive interconnect between source/drain regions of upper and lower transistors. In some embodiments, the interconnect is provided, at least in part, by highly doped epitaxial material deposited in the upper transistor's source/drain region. In such cases, the epitaxial material seeds off of an exposed portion of semiconductor material of or adjacent to the upper transistor's channel region and extends downward into a recess that exposes the lower transistor's source/drain contact structure. The epitaxial source/drain material directly contacts the lower transistor's source/drain contact structure, to provide the interconnect. In other embodiments, the epitaxial material still seeds off the exposed semiconductor material of or proximate to the channel region and extends downward into the recess, but need not contact the lower contact structure. Rather, a metal-containing contact structure passes through the epitaxial material of the upper source/drain region and contacts the lower transistor's source/drain contact structure.

Interconnect techniques for electrically connecting source/drain regions of stacked transistors

Transistor structures with a channel semiconductor material that is passivated with two-dimensional (2D) crystalline material. The 2D material may comprise a semiconductor having a bandgap offset from a band of the channel semiconductor. The 2D material may be a thin as a few monolayers and have good temperature stability. The 2D material may be a conversion product of a sacrificial precursor material, or of a portion of the channel semiconductor material. The 2D material may comprise one or more metal and a chalcogen. The channel material may be a metal oxide semiconductor suitable for low temperature processing (e.g., IGZO), and the 2D material may also be compatible with low temperature processing (e.g., <450° C.). The 2D material may be a chalcogenide of a metal present in the channel material (e.g., ZnSor ZnSe) or of a metal absent from the channel material when formed from a sacrificial precursor.

Transistor channel passivation with 2D crystalline material

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a device structure includes a fin structure, a gate on the fin structure, and a source and a drain on the fin structure, where the gate is between the source and the drain. The device structure further includes an insulator layer having a first insulator layer portion adjacent to a sidewall of the source, a second insulator layer portion adjacent to a sidewall of the drain, and a third insulator layer portion therebetween adjacent to a sidewall of the gate, and two or more stressor materials adjacent to the insulator layer. The stressor materials can be tensile or compressively stressed and may strain a channel under the gate.

Isolation wall stressor structures to improve channel stress and their methods of fabrication

Transistor structures employing metal chalcogenide channel materials may be formed where a chalcogen is introduced into at least a portion of a precursor material that comprises reactive metal(s). The precursor material may be substantially metallic, or may be a metallic oxide (e.g., an oxide semiconductor). The metal(s) may be transition, Group II, Group III, Group V elements, or alloys thereof. An oxide of one or more such metals (e.g., IGZO) may be converted into a chalcogenide (e.g., IGZSor IGZSe) having semiconducting properties. The chalcogenide formed in this manner may be only a few monolayers in thickness (and may be more thermally stable than many oxide semiconductors. Where not all of the precursor material is converted, a transistor structure may retain the precursor material, for example as part of a transistor channel or a gate dielectric. Backend transistors including metal chalcogenide channel materials may be fabricated over silicon CMOS circuitry.

Transistors with metal chalcogenide channel materials

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Hillsboro, OR, United States of America

Christopher J Jezewski