Micron Technology Incorporated

USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC

Jordan D Greenlee

John David Hopkins

Everett Allen McTeer

Rita J Klein

John Mark Meldrim

Alyssa N Scarbrough

Daniel Billingsley

Yongjun Jeff Hu

Nancy M Lomeli

Collin Howder

Jiewei Chen

Xiao Li

Lifang Xu

David Ross Economy

Yiping Wang

Tom George

Indra V Chary

Shuangqiang Luo

Swapnil Lengade

Christian George Emor

Shyam Surthi

Brenda D Kraus

Chet E Carter

Justin D Shepherdson

E Allen McTeer

Francis J Kub

Matthew J King

David A Daycock

Travis J Anderson

Christopher W Petz

Silvia Borsari

Boris N Feigelson

Minsoo Lee

Peng Xu

Purnima Narayanan

Vinayak Shamanna

Andrew Li

Sidhartha Gupta

Luca Fumagalli

Marko Milojevic

Benben Li

Jun Fang

Kyle A Ritter

Aaron Kenneth Belsher

Rithu K Bhonsle

Tao D Nguyen

Liu Liu

Narula Bilik

Rajesh Balachandran

Naiming Liu

Brian S Beatty

Chieh Hsien Quek

Kaiming Luo

Scott M Pook

Vladimir Samara

Everett A Mcteer

Travis Rampton

Giovanni Mazzone

Amritesh Rai

John A Smythe

Rajasekhar Venigalla

Allen McTeer

Karl D Hobart

Farrell Martin Good

Marko J Tadjer

Andrew D Koehler

Damir Fazil

Francois H Fabreguette

M Jared Barclay

Yifen Liu

Eugene A Imhoff

Robert E Stahlbush

Shen Hu

Boris N Feygelson

Nadeemullah A Mahadik

Mithun Kumar Ramasahayam

Anurag Jindal

Jing Wai Fong

Song Kai Tan

Aaron P Thurber

Sijia Yu

Aireus Christensen

Memory circuitry comprising strings of memory cells comprises a stack comprising vertically-alternating insulative tiers and conductive tiers. Channel material strings extend through the insulative tiers and the conductive tiers in a memory-array region. The insulative tiers and the conductive tiers extend from the memory-array region into a stair-step region. The stair step region comprises a cavity comprising a flight of stairs having insulative material atop stair treads. Individual of the treads comprise conducting material of a conductive tier. Conductive vias extend through the insulative material and are directly above and against the conducting material of the respective individual tread. A lining is over sidewalls and bottom of the individual conductive vias. The individual conductive vias are directly under the bottom of the lining directly above the conducting material of the respective individual tread. Other embodiments, including methods of forming the circuitry and elements of circuitry above, are disclosed.

Memory circuitry and method used in forming memory circuitry

A memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises a conductor tier comprising conductor material. Laterally-spaced memory blocks individually comprise a vertical stack comprising alternating insulative tiers and conductive tiers directly above the conductor tier. Channel-material strings of memory cells extend through the insulative tiers and the conductive tiers. The channel material of individual of the channel-material strings is directly electrically coupled to the conductor material of the conductor tier. Intervening material is laterally-between and longitudinally-along immediately-laterally-adjacent of the memory blocks. The intervening material comprises insulating material. The conductor material in the conductor tier comprises a pair of side interfaces that individually extend downwardly from a top of the conductor tier on one of opposing sides of the intervening material and individually extend longitudinally-along the immediately-laterally-adjacent memory blocks. The side interfaces have the conductor material laterally-over opposing sides thereof. Other embodiments, including method, are disclosed.

Memory arrays comprising strings of memory cells and methods used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells

A method used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises forming memory blocks individually comprising a vertical stack comprising alternating insulative tiers and conductive tiers. Individual of the conductive tiers comprise laterally-outer edges comprising conductive molybdenum-containing metal material extending horizontally-along its memory block. Channel-material strings extend through the insulative tiers and the conductive tiers. At least one of conductive or semiconductive material is formed extending horizontally-along the memory blocks laterally-outward of the laterally-outer edges comprising the conductive molybdenum-containing metal material that extends horizontally-along its memory block. Insulator material extending horizontally-along the memory blocks is formed laterally-outward of the at least one of the conductive or the semiconductive material that is laterally-outward of the laterally-outer edges comprising the conductive molybdenum-containing metal material. Other embodiments, including structure independent of method, are disclosed.

Methods used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells and memory arrays comprising strings of memory cells

A memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises laterally-spaced memory blocks individually comprising a first vertical stack comprising vertically-alternating insulative tiers and conductive tiers. Strings of memory cells comprise channel-material strings that extend through the insulative tiers and the conductive tiers. A second vertical stack is aside the first vertical stack. The second vertical stack comprises insulative tiers collectively comprising at least two different compositions relative individual of the insulative tiers. Individual of the at least two different compositions comprise silicon nitride. One of the individual different compositions comprise carbon-doped silicon nitride having at least 0.5 atomic percent more carbon than atomic percent of carbon, if any, in the silicon nitride of another of the individual different compositions. Other embodiments, including method, are disclosed.

Methods used in forming memory arrays having strings of memory cells

A method used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises forming a conductor tier comprising conductor material on a substrate. Laterally-spaced memory-block regions are formed and individually comprise a vertical stack comprising alternating first tiers and second tiers directly above the conductor tier. Channel-material strings of memory cells extend through the first tiers and the second tiers. Horizontally-elongated lines are formed in the conductor material between the laterally-spaced memory-block regions. The horizontally-elongated lines are of different composition from an upper portion of the conductor material that is laterally-between the horizontally-elongated lines. After the horizontally-elongated lines are formed, conductive material of a lowest of the first tiers is formed that directly electrically couples together the channel material of individual of the channel-material strings and the conductor material of the conductor tier, Other embodiments, including structure independent of method, are disclosed.

Some embodiments include a method of forming a conductive structure. A metal-containing conductive material is formed over a supporting substrate. A surface of the metal-containing conductive material is exposed to at least one radical form of hydrogen and to at least one oxidant. The exposure alters at least a portion of the metal-containing conductive material to thereby form at least a portion of the conductive structure. Some embodiments include a conductive structure which has a metal-containing conductive material with a first region adjacent to a second region. The first region has a greater concentration of one or both of fluorine and boron relative to the second region.

Metal-containing structures, and methods of treating metal-containing material to increase grain size and/or reduce contaminant concentration

A microelectronic device comprises a stack structure, a contact structure, a liner material, and a boron-containing material. The stack structure comprises alternating conductive structures and dielectric structures. The contact structure extends through the stack structure. The liner material is between the stack structure and the contact structure. The boron-containing material is between the liner material and the stack structure. Related electronic systems and methods are also described.

Microelectronic devices comprising a boron-containing material, and related electronic systems and methods

A method used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises forming a conductor tier comprising conductor material on a substrate. Laterally-spaced memory-block regions are formed that individually comprise a vertical stack comprising alternating first tiers and second tiers directly above the conductor tier. Channel-material strings of memory cells extend through the first tiers and the second tiers. Horizontally-elongated lines are formed in the conductor tier between the laterally-spaced memory-block regions. The horizontally-elongated lines are of different composition from an upper portion of the conductor material and comprise metal material. After the horizontally-elongated lines are formed, conductive material is formed in a lower of the first tiers and that directly electrically couples together the channel material of individual of the channel-material strings and the conductor material of the conductor tier. Other embodiments, including structure independent of method, are disclosed.

Methods, systems, and devices for self-aligned etching techniques for memory formation are described. A memory device may include a stack of alternating materials and a pillar extending through the stack of alternating materials, where the stack of alternating materials and the pillar may form a set of multiple memory cells. A polysilicon material may be formed above the pillar, where the polysilicon material may be associated with a selector device for the memory cells. A masking material may be formed above the polysilicon material and the stack of alternating materials, where the masking material may be aligned with the polysilicon material and may have a width that is greater than a width of the polysilicon material and the pillar. The masking material may prevent the polysilicon material, the pillar, and a portion of the stack of alternating materials beneath the masking material from being removed during an etching operation.

Self-aligned memory architecture comprising a memory array associated with pillars and polysilicon material

A microelectronic device comprises conductive structures and insulative structures vertically alternating with the conductive structures. At least one of the insulative structures includes interfacial regions extending inward from vertical boundaries of the at least one of the insulative structures, and central region vertically interposed between the interfacial regions. The interfacial regions are doped with one or more of carbon and boron. The insulative structures comprise a lower concentration of the one or more of carbon and boron than the interfacial regions. Additional microelectronic devices, electronic systems, and methods are also described.

Microelectronic devices including stack structures having doped interfacial regions, and related systems and methods

Methods, systems, and devices for a barrier structure for preventing removal of, such as etching to, control circuitry are described. A memory device may include control circuitry over a substrate and for accessing a memory array and contact regions configured to couple with the control circuitry. The memory device may include barrier regions between respective contact regions that includes a barrier material. The memory device may include a stack of layers over the barrier region and the contact regions that is associated with the memory array, and the barrier material may prevent a removal (e.g., an etch) through the stack of layers and at least partially between contact regions from extending to the control circuitry.

Barrier structure for preventing etching to control circuitry

A method used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises forming an upper stack directly above a lower stack. The lower stack comprises vertically-alternating lower-first-tiers and lower-second-tiers. The upper stack comprises vertically-alternating upper-first-tiers and upper-second-tiers. Lower channel openings extend through the lower-first-tiers and the lower-second-tiers. The lower channel openings have sacrificial material therein. An upper of the lower-second-tiers or a lower of the upper-second-tiers comprises non-stoichiometric silicon dioxide that has a silicon-to-oxygen atomic ratio greater than 0.5. A higher of the upper-second-tiers that is above said lower upper-second-tier comprises silicon dioxide that has a silicon-to-oxygen atomic ratio less than or equal to 0.5. Upper channel openings are etched through the upper-first-tiers and the upper-second-tiers to stop on said upper lower-second-tier or said lower upper-second-tier. After the stop, the sacrificial material is removed from the lower channel openings and channel-material strings are formed in the upper and lower channel openings. Other embodiments, including structure independent of method, are disclosed.

Integrated circuitry comprising a memory array comprising strings of memory cells and methods used in forming a memory array comprising strings of memory cells

A memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises laterally-spaced memory blocks individually comprising a vertical stack comprising alternating insulative tiers and conductive tiers above a conductor tier. Strings of memory cells comprise channel-material-string constructions that extend through the insulative tiers and the conductive tiers into the conductor tier. The channel material of the channel-material-string constructions directly electrically couples to conductor material of the conductor tier. The conductor tier comprises islands comprising material of different composition from that of the conductor material of the conductor tier that surrounds individual of the islands. The islands are directly against bottoms of the channel-material-string constructions. Intervening material is laterally-between and longitudinally-along immediately-laterally-adjacent of the memory blocks. Other aspects, including method, are disclosed.

Memory arrays comprising strings of memory cells with conductive islands

Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods of forming the apparatuses. One of the apparatuses includes a first dielectric material; a second dielectric material separated from the first dielectric material; a memory cell string including a pillar extending through the first and second dielectric materials, the pillar including a portion between the first and second dielectric materials; and a tungsten material located between the first and second dielectric materials and separated from the portion of the pillar and the first and second dielectric materials by an additional dielectric material. The additional dielectric material has a dielectric constant greater than a dielectric constant of silicon dioxide. The additional dielectric material contacts the portion of the pillar and the tungsten material.

Memory device including control gates having tungsten structure

A microelectronic device includes a stack structure, slot structures, and dielectric material. The stack structure includes blocks each including a vertically alternating sequence of conductive material and insulative material arranged in tiers. At least one of the blocks includes an array region including strings of memory cells, and a staircase region including a crest sub-region interposed between a staircase structure and the array region. An uppermost boundary of the tiers within the crest sub-region underlies an uppermost boundary of the tiers within the array region. The slot structures are interposed between the blocks of the stack structure. The dielectric material extends over and between the blocks of the stack structure. A thickness of a portion of the dielectric material overlying the crest sub-region is greater than a thickness of an additional portion of the dielectric material overlying the array region. Related memory devices, electronic systems, and methods are also described.

Methods of forming microelectronic devices, and related microelectronic devices, memory devices, and electronic systems

Growing community of inventors

Boise, ID, United States of America

Jordan D Greenlee