Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Ken-Yu Chang

Chun-I Tsai

Ming-Hsing Tsai

Wei-Jung Lin

Chih-Wei Chang

Sung-Li Wang

Chun-Hsien Huang

Shuen-Shin Liang

Chia-Hung Chu

Hung-Yi Huang

Cheng-Wei Chang

Hsu-Kai Chang

Yi-Ying Liu

Keng-Chu Lin

Hung-Wen Su

Sheng-Hsuan Lin

Wei-Yip Loh

Min-Hsiu Hung

Yu Shih Wang

Shian Wei Mao

Yu-Ting Lin

Yueh-Ching Pai

Hong-Mao Lee

Yu-Ming Huang

Yu-Wen Cheng

Tien-Pei Chou

Ethan Tseng

Hua-Tai Lin

Chen-Yuan Kao

Ya-Lien Lee

Jye-Yen Cheng

Chih-Hsiang Yao

Po-Chin Chang

Chia-Han Lai

Kai-Shiang Kuo

Chien Chang

Pinyen Lin

Yu-Hsiang Liao

Jeng-Shiun Ho

Tzu-Pei Chen

Harry Chien

Chi-Hung Chuang

Kai-Yi Chu

Yu-Syuan Cai

Chun-Chieh Wang

Tsang-Jiuh Wu

Minghsing Tsai

Cheng-Cheng Kuo

Peng-Fu Hsu

Pin-Wen Chen

Ping-Jung Wu

Tzu-Chun Lo

Kuan-Kan Hu

Yuting Cheng

Yuan-Chen Hsu

Hong-Ming Wu

Cheng Cheng Kuo

Luke Lo

Chuan-Hui Shen

Hao-Wen Ko

Yu-Chan Tsai

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, an epitaxial structure, a silicide structure, a conductive structure, and a protection segment. The epitaxial structure is disposed in the semiconductor substrate. The silicide structure is disposed in the epitaxial structure. The conductive structure is disposed over the silicide structure and is electrically connected to the silicide structure. The protection segment is made of metal nitride, is disposed over the silicide structure, and is disposed between the silicide structure and the conductive structure.

Semiconductor device with conductive liners over silicide structures and method of making the semiconductor device

A method of forming a semiconductor device includes forming a first conductive feature on a bottom surface of an opening through a dielectric layer. The forming the first conductive feature leaves seeds on sidewalls of the opening. A treatment process is performed on the seeds to form treated seeds. The treated seeds are removed with a cleaning process. The cleaning process may include a rinse with deionized water. A second conductive feature is formed to fill the opening.

Method of forming conductive feature including cleaning step

Some implementations described herein provide a gas curtain system. The gas curtain system includes various components to prevent a gas flowing within a chamber of an interface tool from flowing through an opening into a transport carrier adjacent to the interface tool. The gas curtain system may include a gas distribution component along an edge of the opening that generates a flow of another gas across the opening towards an opposite edge of the opening. In this way, the gas from the chamber is prevented from entering the transport carrier. By preventing the gas from the chamber from entering the transport carrier, a relative humidity within an environment of the transport carrier is maintained such that condensation of moisture on one or more semiconductor wafers within the transport carrier is mitigated.

Interface tool and methods of operation

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: forming a lower metal contact in a trench of a first dielectric structure, the lower metal contact having a height less than a depth of the trench and being made of a first metal material; forming an upper metal contact to fill the trench and to be in contact with the lower metal contact, the upper metal contact being formed of a second metal material different from the first metal material and having a bottom surface with a dimension the same as a dimension of a top surface of the lower metal contact; forming a second dielectric structure on the first dielectric structure; and forming a via contact penetrating through the second dielectric structure to be electrically connected to the upper metal contact, the via contact being formed of a metal material the same as the second metal material.

Gate to source drain interconnects

A semiconductor device includes a substrate, two semiconductor fins protruding from the substrate, an epitaxial feature over the two semiconductor fins and connected to the two semiconductor fins, a silicide layer over the epitaxial feature, a barrier layer over the silicide layer, and a metal layer over the barrier layer. The barrier layer includes a metal nitride. Along a boundary between the barrier layer and the metal layer, an atomic ratio of oxygen to metal nitride is about 0.15 to about 1.0.

Source/drain contact formation methods and devices

Low-flow tungsten chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques described herein provide substantially uniform deposition of tungsten on a semiconductor substrate. In some implementations, a flow of a processing vapor is provided to a CVD processing chamber such that a flow rate of tungsten hexafluoride in the processing vapor results in the tungsten layer being grown at a slower rate than a higher flow rate of the tungsten hexafluoride to promote substantially uniform growth of the tungsten layer. In this way, the low-flow tungsten CVD techniques may be used to achieve similar surface uniformity performance to an atomic layer deposition (ALD) while being a faster deposition process relative to ALD (e.g., due to the lower deposition rate and large quantity of alternating processing cycles of ALD). This reduces the likelihood of defect formation in the tungsten layer while increasing the throughput of semiconductor device processing for the semiconductor substrate (and other semiconductor substrates).

Chemical vapor deposition for uniform tungsten growth

A method includes bonding a top die to a bottom die, depositing a first dielectric liner on the top die, and depositing a gap-fill layer on the first dielectric liner. The gap-fill layer has a first thermal conductivity value higher than a second thermal conductivity value of silicon oxide. The method further includes etching the gap-fill layer and the first dielectric liner to form a through-opening, wherein a metal pad in the bottom die is exposed to the through-opening, depositing a second dielectric liner lining the through-opening, filling the through-opening with a conductive material to form a through-via connecting to the metal pad, and forming a redistribution structure over and electrically connecting to the top die and the through-via.

3DIC with gap-fill structures and the method of manufacturing the same

The present disclosure describes a method to a metallization process with improved gap fill properties. The method includes forming a contact opening in an oxide, forming a barrier layer in the contact opening, forming a liner layer on the barrier layer, and forming a first metal layer on the liner layer to partially fill the contact opening. The method further includes forming a second metal layer on the first metal layer to fill the contact opening, where forming the second metal layer includes sputter depositing the second metal layer with a first radio frequency (RF) power and a direct current power, as well as reflowing the second metal layer with a second RF power.

Contact metallization process

Generally, the present disclosure provides example embodiments relating to conductive features, such as metal contacts, vias, lines, etc., and methods for forming those conductive features. In an embodiment, a barrier layer is formed along a sidewall. A portion of the barrier layer along the sidewall is etched back by a wet etching process. After etching back the portion of the barrier layer, an underlying dielectric welding layer is exposed. A conductive material is formed along the barrier layer.

Contact conductive feature formation and structure

The present disclosure describes a method for forming capping layers configured to prevent the migration of out-diffused cobalt atoms into upper metallization layers In some embodiments, the method includes depositing a cobalt diffusion barrier layer on a liner-free conductive structure that includes ruthenium, where depositing the cobalt diffusion barrier layer includes forming the cobalt diffusion barrier layer self-aligned to the liner-free conductive structure. The method also includes depositing, on the cobalt diffusion barrier layer, a stack with an etch stop layer and dielectric layer, and forming an opening in the stack to expose the cobalt diffusion barrier layer. Finally, the method includes forming a conductive structure on the cobalt diffusion barrier layer.

Capping layer for liner-free conductive structures

Generally, the present disclosure provides example embodiments relating to conductive features, such as metal contacts, vias, lines, etc., and methods for forming those conductive features. In an embodiment, a barrier layer is formed along a sidewall. A portion of the barrier layer along the sidewall is etched back. After etching back the portion of the barrier layer, an upper portion of the barrier layer along the sidewall is smoothed. A conductive material is formed along the barrier layer and over the smoothed upper portion of the barrier layer.

Conductive feature formation and structure

In some implementations, one or more semiconductor processing tools may form a metal cap on a metal gate. The one or more semiconductor processing tools may form one or more dielectric layers on the metal cap. The one or more semiconductor processing tools may form a recess to the metal cap within the one or more dielectric layers. The one or more semiconductor processing tools may perform a bottom-up deposition of metal material on the metal cap to form a metal plug within the recess and directly on the metal cap.

Interconnect structures including a fin structure and a metal cap

The present disclosure provides an interconnect structure and a method for forming an interconnect structure. The method for forming an interconnect structure includes forming a bottom metal line in a first interlayer dielectric layer, forming a second interlayer dielectric layer over the bottom metal line, exposing a top surface of the bottom metal line, increasing a total surface area of the exposed top surface of the bottom metal line, forming a conductive via over the bottom metal line, and forming a top metal line over the conductive via.

Interconnect structure and manufacturing method for the same

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Ken-Yu Chang