Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Jun-Kyu Cho

Ja-Hum Ku

Seong-Jun Heo

Chul-Joon Choi

Mahn-Ho Cho

Sung-Man Kim

Si-Young Choi

Young-Joon Choi

Sun-Pil Youn

Ja-hum Ku

Byung-Yong Kim

In one embodiment, a semiconductor device comprises an active region isolated by a device isolation layer placed in a semiconductor substrate having a main surface. A molding hole is placed in the semiconductor substrate on the active region. A pocket insulating layer pattern conformally covers the molding hole. A pocket line extends across the active region, filling the molding hole and protruding from the main surface of the semiconductor substrate. The pocket line includes a pocket conductive layer line, a lower metal layer line, and an upper metal layer line, which are sequentially stacked on the pocket insulating later pattern. The device further may further include a line capping layer pattern placed on the pocket line. The line capping layer pattern and the pocket conductive layer line may surround the lower and upper metal layer lines.

Semiconductor devices having a pocket line and methods of fabricating the same

In a method of forming a metal gate electrode, an annealing process is performed in a hydrogen-containing gas ambient following a selective oxidation process. During the annealing process, a metal oxide layer formed by the selective oxidation process is removed by a reduction reaction or hydrogen atoms are contained in the metal oxide layer to suppress whisker nucleation and surface mobility.

Method of forming a metal gate

Integrated circuit gates are fabricated by forming an insulated gate on an integrated circuit substrate, wherein the insulated gate includes a gate oxide on the integrated circuit substrate, a polysilicon pattern including polysilicon sidewalls, on the gate oxide, and a metal pattern on the polysilicon pattern. The insulated gate is pretreated with hydrogen and nitrogen gasses. The polysilicon sidewalls are then oxidized. The pretreating in hydrogen and nitrogen gasses prior to oxidizing can reduce growth in thickness of the gate oxide during the oxidizing and/or can reduce formation of whiskers on the metal pattern, compared to absence of the pretreatment.

Methods of fabricating integrated circuit gates by pretreating prior to oxidizing

The present invention includes a method of forming a metal gate electrode on which whiskers are not formed after performing a selective oxidation process and a subsequent heating process. The metal gate electrode is formed by forming a metal gate electrode pattern which is comprised of a polysilicon layer and a metal layer, and performing a selective oxidation process. After the selective oxidation process, the metal gate electrode undergoes a subsequent heating treatment. The selective oxidation process is carried out in a nitrogen containing gas ambient, so that a metal oxide layer is minimally formed on the metal layer. As a result, it is prevented from causing whiskers on the metal layer.

Method of forming a metal gate electrode

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Kwangju, South Korea

Jun-Kyu Cho