Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

Karla Romero

Manfred Horstmann

Sven Beyer

Andy C Wei

Peter Javorka

Rolf Stephan

Frank Wirbeleit

Christoph Schwan

Markus Forsberg

Joe Bloomquist

Jan Hoentschel

Karsten Wieczorek

Thorsten E Kammler

Markus Lenski

Hartmut Ruelke

Thomas Feudel

Martin Trentzsch

Scott Luning

Patrick Press

Katja Huy

Hans Van Meer

By forming isolation trenches of different types of intrinsic stress on the basis of separate process sequences, the strain characteristics of adjacent active semiconductor regions may be adjusted so as to obtain overall device performance. For example, highly stressed dielectric fill material including compressive and tensile stress may be appropriately provided in the respective isolation trenches in order to correspondingly adapt the charge carrier mobility of respective channel regions.

Semiconductor device comprising isolation trenches inducing different types of strain

By embedding a silicon/germanium mixture in a silicon layer of high tensile strain, a moderately high degree of tensile strain may be maintained in the silicon/germanium mixture, thereby enabling increased performance of N-channel transistors on the basis of silicon/germanium material. In other regions, the germanium concentration may be varied to provide different levels of tensile or compressive strain.

Tensile strain source using silicon/germanium in globally strained silicon

A method for forming a silicon dioxide cap layer for a carbon hard mask layer for patterning of polysilicon line features having critical dimensions of 50 nm and less is provided. To this end, a low temperature plasma enhanced CVD process is used in which the deposition rate is maintained low to provide improved controllability of the layer thickness and, thus, of the optical characteristics of the silicon dioxide layer.

Method of forming a TEOS cap layer at low temperature and reduced deposition rate

By performing sophisticated anneal techniques, such as laser anneal, flash anneal and the like, for a metal silicide formation, such as nickel silicide, the risk of nickel silicide defects in sensitive device regions, such as SRAM pass gates, may be significantly reduced. Also, the activation of dopants may be performed in a highly localized manner, so that undue damage of gate insulation layers may be avoided when activating and re-crystallizing drain and source regions.

Technique for locally adapting transistor characteristics by using advanced laser/flash anneal techniques

A method of forming a semiconductor structure comprises providing a semiconductor substrate comprising a first transistor element and a second transistor element. Each of the first transistor element and the second transistor element comprises a gate electrode. A stressed material layer is deposited over the first transistor element and the second transistor element. The stressed material layer is processed to form from the stressed material layer sidewall spacers adjacent the gate electrode of the second transistor element and a hard mask covering the first transistor element. A pair of cavities is formed adjacent the gate electrode of the second transistor element. A pair of stress-creating elements is formed in the cavities and the hard mask is at least partially removed.

Semiconductor structure comprising field effect transistors with stressed channel regions and method of forming the same

Method of making a semiconductor device comprising isolation trenches inducing different types of strain

By providing a hard mask layer stack including at least three different layers for patterning a gate electrode structure, constraints demanded by sophisticated lithography, as well as cap layer integrity, in a subsequent selective epitaxial growth process may be accomplished, thereby providing the potential for further device scaling of transistor devices requiring raised drain and source regions.

Technique for forming a transistor having raised drain and source regions with a tri-layer hard mask for gate patterning

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Dresden, Germany

Karla Romero