Stmicroelectronics Gmbh

International Business Machines Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

Adeia Semiconductor Bonding Technologies Inc.

Hefechip Corporation Limited

Adeia Semiconductor Solutions LLC

John H Zhang

Lawrence Alfred Clevenger

Carl John Radens

Yiheng Xu

Kangguo Cheng

Qing Liu

Walter Kleemeier

Haigou Huang

Xusheng Kevin Wu

Junli Wang

Steven J Bentley

Edem Wornyo

Ruilong Xie

Jiehui Shu

Ronald Kevin Sampson

Balasubramanian Pranatharthiharan

Laertis Economikos

Kwan-Yong Lim

Paul Ferreira

Balasubramanian S Pranatharthi Haran

Richard Stephen Wise

Hui Zang

Richard Stephan Wise

Wei-Tsu Tseng

Heng Yang

Cindy Goldberg

Chanro Park

Terry Allen Spooner

Nicole A Saulnier

Pietro Montanini

Chengyu Charles Niu

Yanzun Li

Devendra K Sadana

Hsueh-Chung Chen

Yann Mignot

Jinping Liu

Huang Liu

Pierre Morin

Cheng Chi

Robin Hsin Kuo Chao

Akil Khamisi Sutton

Adam D Ticknor

Brian Alexander Cohen

Stan Tsai

Byoung Youp Kim

Robin Van Den Nieuwenhuizen

Yannick Loquet

Ajey Poovannummoottil Jacob

Lars W Liebmann

Garo Jacques Derderian

Min Gyu Sung

Hiroaki Niimi

Haiting Wang

Xunyuan Zhang

Siva P Adusumilli

Daniel Chanemougame

Balasubramanian S Haran

Murat Kerem Akarvardar

Yi Qi

Guoxiang Ning

Lei Sun

Steven R Soss

Mahender Kumar

Shao Beng Law

Xiaoqiang Zhang

Tao Han

Qiang Fang

Hui Zhan

Pei Liu

Tai Fong Chao

Guoliang Zhu

Xingzhao Shi

Brian Li Ji

Carl J Radens

Xusheng Yu

Tongqing Chen

A semiconductor device includes a first trench on a mandrel line through a top mask layer and stopping at a middle mask layer; and a second trench on a non-mandrel line through the top mask layer and stopping at the middle mask layer. A spacer material is removed from a structure resulting from etching the first trench and the second trench. The device includes a first via structure, formed using a removable material, in the first trench; a second via structure, formed using a removable material, in the second trench; an air-gap formed in a third trench created at a location of the spacer; a fourth trench formed by etching, to remove the first via structure and a first portion of a bottom mask layer under the first via structure; and a self-aligned line-end via on the mandrel line formed by filling the fourth trench with a conductive metal.

Forming self-aligned vias and air-gaps in semiconductor fabrication

A semiconductor structure includes a substrate having a doped silicon substrate, a buried oxide layer, and a silicon device layer. A capacitor having an inner electrode and a node dielectric layer is formed in the substrate. The inner electrode and the node dielectric layer extend into the doped silicon substrate. A select transistor is disposed in the silicon device layer. An embedded contact is disposed atop the capacitor to electrically couple a doped region of the select transistor with the inner electrode. A first dielectric layer is disposed around the select transistor. A second dielectric layer is deposited on the first dielectric layer. A contact plug is formed in the second dielectric layer and the first dielectric layer and is in direct contact with the embedded contact. A memory stack with a MTJ element is disposed on the contact plug.

Semiconductor structure and fabrication method thereof

A semiconductor device includes a first stack of nanowires above a substrate with a first gate structure over, around, and between the first stack of nanowires and a second stack of nanowires above the substrate with a second gate structure over, around, and between the second stack of nanowires. The device also includes a first source/drain region contacting a first number of nanowires of the first nanowire stack and a second source/drain region contacting a second number of nanowires of the second nanowire stack such that the first number and second number of contacted nanowires are different.

Stacked transistors with different channel widths

Single gate and dual gate FinFET devices suitable for use in an SRAM memory array have respective fins, source regions, and drain regions that are formed from portions of a single, contiguous layer on the semiconductor substrate, so that STI is unnecessary. Pairs of FinFETs can be configured as dependent-gate devices wherein adjacent channels are controlled by a common gate, or as independent-gate devices wherein one channel is controlled by two gates. Metal interconnects coupling a plurality of the FinFET devices are made of a same material as the gate electrodes. Such structural and material commonalities help to reduce costs of manufacturing high-density memory arrays.

Integrated circuit devices and fabrication techniques

Incorporation of metallic quantum dots (e.g., silver bromide (AgBr) films) into the source and drain regions of a MOSFET can assist in controlling the transistor performance by tuning the threshold voltage. If the silver bromide film is rich in bromine atoms, anion quantum dots are deposited, and the AgBr energy gap is altered so as to increase V. If the silver bromide film is rich in silver atoms, cation quantum dots are deposited, and the AgBr energy gap is altered so as to decrease V. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of neutral quantum dots of different sizes also varies V. Use of a mass spectrometer during film deposition can assist in varying the composition of the quantum dot film. The metallic quantum dots can be incorporated into ion-doped source and drain regions. Alternatively, the metallic quantum dots can be incorporated into epitaxially doped source and drain regions.

Threshold adjustment for quantum dot array devices with metal source and drain

Transistors having partially recessed gates are constructed on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor wafers provided with a buried oxide layer (BOX), for example, FD-SOI and UTBB devices. An epitaxially grown channel region relaxes constraints on the design of doped source and drain profiles. Formation of a partially recessed gate and raised epitaxial source and drain regions allow further improvements in transistor performance and reduction of short channel effects such as drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) and control of a characteristic subthreshold slope. Gate recess can be varied to place the channel at different depths relative to the dopant profile, assisted by advanced process control. The partially recessed gate has an associated high-k gate dielectric that is initially formed in contact with three sides of the gate. Subsequent removal of the high-k sidewalls and substitution of a lower-k silicon nitride encapsulant lowers capacitance between the gate and the source and drain regions.

Silicon on insulator device with partially recessed gate

Energy bands of a thin film containing molecular clusters are tuned by controlling the size and the charge of the clusters during thin film deposition. Using atomic layer deposition, an ionic cluster film is formed in the gate region of a nanometer-scale transistor to adjust the threshold voltage, and a neutral cluster film is formed in the source and drain regions to adjust contact resistance. A work function semiconductor material such as a silver bromide or a lanthanum oxide is deposited so as to include clusters of different sizes such as dimers, trimers, and tetramers, formed from isolated monomers. A type of Atomic Layer Deposition system is used to deposit on semiconductor wafers molecular clusters to form thin film junctions having selected energy gaps. A beam of ions contains different ionic clusters which are then selected for deposition by passing the beam through a filter in which different apertures select clusters based on size and orientation.

Atomic layer deposition of selected molecular clusters

A vacuum channel transistor having a vertical gate-all-around (GAA) architecture provides high performance for high-frequency applications, and features a small footprint compared with existing planar devices. The GAA vacuum channel transistor features stacked, tapered source and drain regions that are formed by notching a doped silicon pillar using a lateral oxidation process. A temporary support structure is provided for the pillar during formation of the vacuum channel. Performance of the GAA vacuum channel transistor can be tuned by replacing air in the channel with other gases such as helium, neon, or argon. A threshold voltage of the GAA vacuum channel transistor can be adjusted by altering dopant concentrations of the silicon pillar from which the source and drain regions are formed.

Gate all around vacuum channel transistor

An interconnect structure for use in coupling transistors in an integrated circuit is disclosed, including various configurations in which ferroelectric capacitors exhibiting negative capacitance are coupled in series with dielectric capacitors. In one embodiment, the negative capacitor includes a dielectric/ferroelectric bi-layer. When a negative capacitor is electrically coupled in series with a conventional dielectric capacitor, the series combination behaves like a stable ferroelectric capacitor for which the overall capacitance can be measured experimentally, and tuned to a desired value. The composite capacitance of a dielectric capacitor and a ferroelectric capacitor having negative capacitance coupled in series is, in theory, infinite, and in practice, very large. A series combination of positive and negative capacitors within a microelectronic interconnect structure can be used to make high capacity DRAM memory cells.

Method of making interconnect structure having ferroelectric capacitors exhibiting negative capacitance

It is recognized that, because of its unique properties, graphene can serve as an interface with biological cells that communicate by an electrical impulse, or action potential. Responding to a sensed signal can be accomplished by coupling a graphene sensor to a low power digital electronic switch that is activatable by the sensed low power electrical signals. It is further recognized that low power devices such as tunneling diodes and TFETs are suitable for use in such biological applications in conjunction with graphene sensors. While tunneling diodes can be used in diagnostic applications, TFETs, which are three-terminal devices, further permit controlling the voltage on one cell according to signals received by other cells. Thus, by the use of a biological sensor system that includes graphene nanowire sensors coupled to a TFET, charge can be redistributed among different biological cells, potentially with therapeutic effects.

Low power biological sensing system

A tunneling transistor is implemented in silicon, using a FinFET device architecture. The tunneling FinFET has a non-planar, vertical, structure that extends out from the surface of a doped drain formed in a silicon substrate. The vertical structure includes a lightly doped fin defined by a subtractive etch process, and a heavily-doped source formed on top of the fin by epitaxial growth. The drain and channel have similar polarity, which is opposite that of the source. A gate abuts the channel region, capacitively controlling current flow through the channel from opposite sides. Source, drain, and gate terminals are all electrically accessible via front side contacts formed after completion of the device. Fabrication of the tunneling FinFET is compatible with conventional CMOS manufacturing processes, including replacement metal gate and self-aligned contact processes. Low-power operation allows the tunneling FinFET to provide a high current density compared with conventional planar devices.

Vertical tunneling FinFET

Stress is introduced into the channel of an SOI FinFET device by transfer directly from a metal gate. In SOI devices in particular, stress transfer efficiency from the metal gate to the channel is nearly 100%. Either tensile or compressive stress can be applied to the fin channel by choosing different materials to be used in the gate stack as the bulk gate material, a gate liner, or a work function material, or by varying processing parameters during deposition of the gate or work function materials. P-gates and N-gates are therefore formed separately. Gate materials suitable for use as stressors include tungsten (W) for NFETs and titanium nitride (TiN) for PFETs. An optical planarization material assists in patterning the stress-inducing metal gates. A simplified process flow is disclosed in which isolation regions are formed without need for a separate mask layer, and gate sidewall spacers are not used.

SOI FinFET transistor with strained channel

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Altamont, NY, United States of America

John H Zhang