Motorola Corporation

Jim Hayden

Howard C Kirsch

Umesh Sharma

Bich-Yen Nguyen

Marius K Orlowski

Philip J Tobin

Jack Higman

A monolithic semiconductor body (26) resides in an opening (16) formed in an insulating layer (14). The monolithic semiconductor body (26) includes an elongated region (20) filling the opening (16) in the insulating layer (14) and contacting a semiconductor region (12). The monolithic semiconductor body (26) further includes a surface region (24) overlying the elongated region (20) and a portion of the surface (22) of the insulating layer (14) adjacent to the opening (16). The monolithic semiconductor body (26) is fabricated by first depositing a layer of semiconductor material into the opening (16), then planarizing the surface of the insulating layer (14). Next, a selective deposition process is carried out to form the surface region (24) using the semiconductor material in the opening (16) as a nucleation site. The radius of curvature of the surface region (24) is determined by the amount of controlled overgrowth during the selective deposition process.

Monolithic semiconductor body with convex structure

A nonvolatile SRAM cell (20) includes a six-transistor SRAM cell portion (22) and a three-transistor nonvolatile memory portion (30). The nonvolatile memory portion (30) is connected to one storage node (101) of the SRAM cell portion (22). The nonvolatile SRAM cell (20) is three-dimensionally integrated in four layers of polysilicon. The nonvolatile memory portion (30) includes a thin film memory cell (32) having an oxide-nitride-oxide structure (41), and is programmable with a relatively low programming voltage. The three-dimensional integration of the nonvolatile SRAM cell (20) and relatively low programming voltage results in lower power consumption and smaller cell size.

Method for forming a nonvolatile memory device

Three-dimensionally integrated nonvolatile SRAM cell and process

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Jim Hayden