International Business Machines Corporation

Denise Pendleton

Herbert Lei Ho

David M Dobuzinsky

Michael D Steigerwalt

Johnathan E Faltermeier

Mahender Kumar

Karen Ann Bard

Brian L Walsh

Mahendar Kumar

Methods for forming or etching silicon trench isolation (STI) in a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) region and a bulk silicon region, and a semiconductor device so formed, are disclosed. The STI can be etched simultaneously in the SOI and bulk silicon regions by etching to an uppermost silicon layer using an STI mask, conducting a timed etch that etches to a desired depth in the bulk silicon region and stops on a buried insulator of the SOI region, and etching through the buried insulator of the SOI region. The buried insulator etch for this process can be done with little complexity as part of a hardmask removal step. Further, by choosing the same depth for both the bulk and SOI regions, problems with a subsequent CMP process are avoided. The invention also cleans up the boundary between the SOI and bulk regions where silicon nitride residuals may exist.

STI formation in semiconductor device including SOI and bulk silicon regions

A DRAM array in an SOI wafer having a uniform BOX layer extending throughout the array eliminates the collar oxide step in processing; connects the buried plates with an implant that, in turn, is connected to a conductive plug extending through the device layer and the box that is biased at ground; while the pass transistors are planar NFETs having floating bodies that have a leakage discharge path to ground through a grounded bitline.

SOI trench capacitor cell incorporating a low-leakage floating body array transistor

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Wappingers Falls, NY, United States of America

Denise Pendleton