Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Hsu Chen Cheng

Denny Tang

Wen-Chin Lin

Chuan-Ying Lee

A semiconductor substrate includes semi-insulating portions beneath openings in a patterned hardmask film formed over a semiconductor substructure to a thickness sufficient to prevent charged particles from passing through the hardmask. The semi-insulating portions include charged particles and may extend deep into the semiconductor substrate and electrically insulate devices formed on opposed sides of the semi-insulating portions. The charged particles may advantageously be protons and further substrate portions covered by the patterned hardmask film are substantially free of the charged particles.

Semiconductor device with semi-insulating substrate portions

A method for forming semi-insulating portions in a semiconductor substrate provides depositing a hardmask film over a semiconductor substructure to a thickness sufficient to prevent charged particles from passing through the hardmask. The hardmask is patterned creating openings through which charged particles pass and enter the substrate during an implantation process. The semi-insulating portions may extend deep into the semiconductor substrate and electrically insulate devices formed on opposed sides of the semi-insulating portions. The charged particles may advantageously be protons and further substrate portions covered by the patterned hardmask film are substantially free of the charged particles.

Semiconductor device with semi-insulating substrate portions and method for forming the same

Disclosed herein are toggle-mode magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) devices having small-angle toggle write lines, and related methods of toggle-mode switching MRAM devices. Also disclosed are layouts for MRAM devices constructed according to the disclosed principles. Generally speaking, the disclosed principles provide for non-orthogonally aligned toggle-mode write lines used to switch toggle-mode MRAM devices that employ a bias field to decrease the threshold needed to switch the magnetic state of each device. While the conventional toggle-mode write lines provide for the desired orthogonal orientation of the applied magnetic fields to optimize device switching, the use of a bias field affects this orthogonal orientation. By non-orthogonally aligning the two write lines as disclosed herein, the detrimental affect of the bias field may be compensated for such that the net fields applied to the device for both lines are again substantially orthogonal, as is desired.

Growing community of inventors

Hsinchu, Taiwan

Hsu Chen Cheng