Micron Technology Incorporated

Intel Corporation

Intel Ndtm US LLC

Sk Hynix Nand Product Solutions Corp.

Deepak Thimmegowda

Chang Wan Ha

Graham Richard Wolstenholme

Andrew Bicksler

Roland J Awusie

Tamotsu Murakoshi

Toru Tanzawa

Aaron S Yip

Khaled Hasnat

Liu Liu

Charles H Dennison

Mark Alan Helm

Philip J Ireland

Kenneth William Marr

Guangyu Huang

Brian J Cleereman

Dong Ji

Yongna Li

Krishna Kumar Parat

Prashant Majhi

Pranav Kalavade

Zengtao T Liu

Shantanu R Rajwade

Owen W Jungroth

Jui-Yen Lin

Chuan Lin

Binh N Ngo

David S Meyaard

Srivardhan Gowda

Sriram Balasubrahmanyam

Ahsanur Rahman

David Meyaard

Soo-yong Park

Ahmed Reza

Praveen Kumar Kalsani

Zengtao Tony Liu

Baosuo Zhou

Richard M Gularte

Jong Sun Sel

Hoon Koh

An embodiment of a memory device may include a substrate, a first memory array of three-dimensional (3D) NAND cells disposed on the substrate, an isolation trench disposed on the substrate adjacent to the first memory array, and an input/output (IO) contact positioned within the isolation trench. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

3D NAND with IO contacts in isolation trench

Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods having a substrate, a memory cell string including a body, a select gate located in a level of the apparatus and along a portion of the body, and control gates located in other levels of the apparatus and along other respective portions of the body. At least one of such apparatuses includes a conductive connection coupling the select gate or one of the control gates to a component (e.g., transistor) in the substrate. The connection can include a portion going through a portion of at least one of the control gates.

Memory array having connections going through control gates

An embodiment of a memory device may include a full block memory array of a lower tile of 3D NAND string memory cells, a full block memory array of an upper tile of 3D NAND string memory cells, a first portion of a string driver circuit coupled to the full block memory array of the lower tile, a second portion of the string driver circuit coupled to the full block memory array of the upper tile, a first split block memory array of the lower tile coupled to the first portion of the string driver circuit, and a second split block memory array of the upper tile coupled to the second portion of the string driver circuit. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

Split block array for 3D NAND memory

A driver circuit for a three-dimensional (3D) memory device has a field management structure electrically coupled to a gate conductor. The field management structure causes an electric field peak in a vertical channel of the 3D memory device when a voltage differential exists between the source conductor and the drain conductor and the gate conductor is not biased. The electrical field peak can adjust the electrical response of the driver circuit, enabling the circuit to have a higher breakdown threshold voltage and improved drive current. Thus, the driver circuit can enable a scalable vertical string driver that is above the memory array instead of under the memory array circuitry.

Vertical string driver with channel field management structure

An integrated circuit memory includes a first memory block and an adjacent second memory block. The first memory block comprises a first memory pillar around which a first memory cell is formed. The second memory block comprises a second memory pillar around which a second memory cell is formed. An isolation or slit area between the first and second memory blocks electrically isolates the first and second memory blocks. In an example, the slit area comprising a slit pillar around which no memory cells are formed. The slit pillar is a dummy pillar, and insulator material electrically isolates the slit pillar from a Word Line (WL) through which it passes. The isolation layer electrically can also isolate a (WL) of the first memory block from a corresponding WL of the second memory block. In an example, the slit pillar and the memory pillars have at least in part similar structures.

Block-to-block isolation and deep contact using pillars in a memory array

A driver circuit for a three-dimensional (3D) memory device has a super junction structure as a field management structure. The super junction structure could be referred to as an extended junction structure, which distributes the electrical field of the junction between the vertical channel and the gate conductor for a string driver. The vertical channel includes a channel conductor to connect vertically between a source conductor and a drain conductor. The extended junction structure extends in parallel with the vertical channel conductor, extending vertically toward the drain conductor, having a height greater than a height of the gate conductor.

Vertical string driver with extended gate junction structure

The total silicon area used by a plurality of high voltage transistors in an array of NAND cells is reduced by modifying the silicon area layout such that the size of the source and drain of each of the plurality of high voltage transistors is dependent on the maximum voltage to be applied to each of the source and drain for the respective one of the plurality of high voltage transistors.

Asymmetric junctions of high voltage transistor in NAND flash memory

Some embodiments include a transistor having a first electrically conductive gate portion along a first segment of a channel region and a second electrically conductive gate portion along a second segment of the channel region. The second electrically conductive gate portion is a different composition than the first electrically conductive gate portion. Some embodiments include a method of forming a semiconductor construction. First semiconductor material and metal-containing material are formed over a NAND string. An opening is formed through the metal-containing material and the first semiconductor material, and is lined with gate dielectric. Second semiconductor material is provided within the opening to form a channel region of a transistor. The transistor is a select device electrically coupled to the NAND string.

Transistors, semiconductor constructions, and methods of forming semiconductor constructions

Apparatuses and methods for stair step formation using at least two masks, such as in a memory device, are provided. One example method can include forming a first mask over a conductive material to define a first exposed area, and forming a second mask over a portion of the first exposed area to define a second exposed area, the second exposed area is less than the first exposed area. Conductive material is removed from the second exposed area. An initial first dimension of the second mask is less than a first dimension of the first exposed area and an initial second dimension of the second mask is at least a second dimension of the first exposed area plus a distance equal to a difference between the initial first dimension of the second mask and a final first dimension of the second mask after a stair step structure is formed.

Devices including stair step structures, and related apparatuses and memory devices

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed towards a memory device with vertical string drivers, in accordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, the memory device includes a plurality of wordlines formed in a stack of multiple tiers. The device further includes a semiconductor layer disposed on top of the plurality of wordlines. The device further includes a plurality of string drivers disposed in the semiconductor layer substantially perpendicular to the tier stack of the plurality of wordlines. The semiconductor layer provides respective gate connections for the plurality of string drivers. In some embodiments, the semiconductor layer may be fabricated of polysilicon. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Memory device with vertical string drivers

Memory devices and related methods

An apparatus is described. The apparatus includes a three dimensional storage cell array structure. The apparatus also includes a staircase structure having alternating conductive and dielectric layers, wherein respective word lines are formed in the conductive layers. The word lines are connected to respective storage cells within the three dimensional storage cell array structure. The apparatus also includes upper word lines above the staircase structure that are connected to first vias that connect to respective steps of the staircase structure. The upper word lines are also connected to second vias that run vertically off a side of the staircase structure other than a side opposite the three dimensional storage cell array structure. The second vias are connected to respective word line driver transistors that are disposed beneath the staircase structure.

Three dimensional storage cell array with highly dense and scalable word line design approach

The present disclosure relates to providing a wordline bridge between wordlines of adjacent tiles of memory cells to reduce the number wordline staircases in 3D memory arrays. An apparatus may include a memory array having memory cells. The memory array includes a first block of pages of the memory cells in a first tile and a second block of pages of the memory cells in a second tile. The apparatus may also include a polysilicon wordline bridge that couples first wordlines of the first block to second wordlines of the second block to couple the first tile to the second tile. The wordline bridge may be formed by applying a hard mask over the first tile, the second tile, and over a portion of polysilicon that connects the first tile to the second tile.

Wordline bridge in a 3D memory array

Growing community of inventors

Boise, ID, United States of America

Deepak Thimmegowda