Globalfoundries Inc.

Globalfoundries U.S. Inc.

Hyuck Soo Yang

Jinping Liu

Jiehui Shu

Tao Han

Chang Seo Park

Shimpei Yamaguchi

Yong Mo Yang

One illustrative IC product disclosed herein includes first and second final gate structures and an insulating gate separation structure positioned between the first and second final gate structures. In one embodiment, the insulating gate separation structure has a stepped bottom surface with a substantially horizontally oriented bottom central surface that is surrounded by a substantially horizontally oriented recessed surface, wherein the substantially horizontally oriented bottom central surface is positioned a first level above the substrate and the substantially horizontally oriented recessed surface is positioned at a second level above the substrate, wherein the second level is greater than the first level.

IC product comprising an insulating gate separation structure positioned between end surfaces of adjacent gate structures

One illustrative method disclosed herein includes, among other things, forming a sacrificial gate structure above a semiconductor substrate, the sacrificial gate structure comprising a sacrificial gate insulation layer and a sacrificial gate electrode material, performing a first gate-cut etching process to thereby form an opening in the sacrificial gate electrode material and forming an internal sidewall spacer in the opening. In this example, the method also includes, after forming the internal sidewall spacer, performing a second gate-cut etching process through the opening, the second gate-cut etching process being adapted to remove the sacrificial gate electrode material, performing an oxidizing anneal process and forming an insulating material in at least the opening.

Methods of forming replacement gate structures on transistor devices

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Watervliet, NY, United States of America

Hyuck Soo Yang