Micron Technology Incorporated

Intel Corporation

Kunal Shrotri

Anish A Khandekar

John David Hopkins

Jie Li

Fei Wang

Tom Jibu John

Gordon A Haller

Matthew J King

Kunal R Parekh

Luan C Tran

Justin B Dorhout

Dimitrios Pavlopoulos

Ryan L Meyer

Christopher J Larsen

Jivaan Kishore Jhothiraman

David H Wells

Martin Ceredig Roberts

Chris M Carlson

Chet E Carter

Aaron R Wilson

Chandra S Tiwari

Matthew Park

Minsoo Lee

Vinayak Shamanna

James Mathew

Ian C Laboriante

Ramey M Abdelrahaman

Derek F Lundberg

Yangda Zhang

Hongpeng Yu

Lifang Xu

Swapnil Lengade

Suresh Ramarajan

Gowrisankar Damarla

Sri Sai Sivakumar Vegunta

Jeslin J Wu

Rithu K Bhonsle

Rutuparna Narulkar

John B Matovu

David S Meyaard

Kevin R Gast

Shashank Saraf

Shyam Surthi

David A Daycock

Manzar Siddik

Matthew S Thorum

Jeffery B Hull

Wei Yeeng Ng

Zhiqiang Xie

Terry H Kim

Zhixin Xu

Srinath Venkatesan

Duo Mao

Ee Ee Eng

Dong Liang

Greg Light

Yoshiaki Fukuzumi

Paolo Tessariol

Adam William Saxler

John Mark Meldrim

Richard J Hill

Jun Fujiki

Christopher W Petz

Shuji Tanaka

Erik R Byers

Umberto Maria Meotto

Darwin Franseda Fan

Fawad Ahmed

Changhan Kim

Andrew Li

Prakash Rau Mokhna Rau

Diem Thy N Tran

Sidhartha Gupta

Nicholas R Tapias

Matthew Holland

Kyle A Ritter

Shivani Srivastava

Saurabh Keshav

Kye Hyun Baek

Chandra Tiwari

Philip M Campbell

Younghee Kim

Yu Yuwen

Some embodiments include an integrated assembly having a vertical stack of alternating insulative levels and conductive levels. The insulative levels have a same primary composition as one another. At least one of the insulative levels is compositionally different relative to others of the insulative levels due to said at least one of the insulative levels including dopant dispersed within the primary composition. An opening extends vertically through the stack. Some embodiments include methods of forming integrated assemblies.

Integrated assemblies and methods of forming integrated assemblies

A method comprising forming a stack precursor comprising alternating first materials and second materials, the first materials and the second materials exhibit different melting points. A portion of the alternating first materials and second materials is removed to form a pillar opening through the alternating first materials and second materials. A sacrificial material is formed in the pillar opening. The first materials are removed to form first spaces between the second materials, the first materials formulated to be in a liquid phase or in a gas phase at a first removal temperature. A conductive material is formed in the first spaces. The second materials are removed to form second spaces between the conductive materials, the second materials formulated to be in a liquid phase or in a gas phase at a second removal temperature. A dielectric material is formed in the second spaces. The sacrificial material is removed from the pillar opening and cell materials are formed in the pillar opening.

Methods of forming electronic devices using materials removable at different temperatures

A microelectronic device comprises a stack structure comprising a stack structure comprising alternating conductive structures and insulating structures arranged in tiers, each of the tiers individually comprising one of the conductive structures and one of the insulating structures, staircase structures within the stack structure and having steps comprising edges of the tiers, and a doped dielectric material adjacent the steps of the staircase structures and comprising silicon dioxide doped with one or more of boron, phosphorus, carbon, and fluorine, the doped dielectric material having a greater ratio of Si—O—Si bonds to water than borophosphosilicate glass. Related methods of forming a microelectronic device and related electronic systems are also disclosed.

Microelectronic devices including stair step structures, and related electronic devices and methods

Some embodiments include an integrated assembly having a vertical stack of alternating insulative and conductive levels. The conductive levels have terminal regions and nonterminal regions. The terminal regions are vertically thicker than the nonterminal regions. Channel material extends vertically through the stack. Tunneling material is adjacent the channel material. Charge-storage material is adjacent the tunneling material. High-k dielectric material is between the charge-storage material and the terminal regions of the conductive levels. The insulative levels have carbon-containing first regions between the terminal regions of neighboring conductive levels, and have second regions between the nonterminal regions of the neighboring conductive levels. Some embodiments include methods of forming integrated assemblies.

Some embodiments include an integrated structure having vertically-stacked conductive levels alternating with dielectric levels. A layer over the conductive levels includes silicon, nitrogen, and one or more of carbon, oxygen, boron and phosphorus. In some embodiments the vertically-stacked conductive levels are wordline levels within a NAND memory array. Some embodiments include an integrated structure having vertically-stacked conductive levels alternating with dielectric levels. Vertically-stacked NAND memory cells are along the conductive levels within a memory array region. A staircase region is proximate the memory array region. The staircase region has electrical contacts in one-to-one correspondence with the conductive levels. A layer is over the memory array region and over the staircase region. The layer includes silicon, nitrogen, and one or more of carbon, oxygen, boron and phosphorus.

Integrated structures including material containing silicon, nitrogen, and at least one of carbon, oxygen, boron and phosphorus

A microelectronic device comprises a stack structure comprising a stack structure comprising a vertically alternating sequence of conductive structures and insulative structures arranged in tiers, the stack structure divided into block structures separated from one another by slot structures, strings of memory cells vertically extending through the block structures of the stack structure, the strings of memory cells individually comprising a channel material vertically extending through the stack structure, an additional stack structure vertically overlying the stack structure and comprising a vertical sequence of additional conductive structures and additional insulative structures arranged in additional tiers, first pillars extending through the additional stack structure and vertically overlying the strings of memory cells, each of the first pillars horizontally offset from a center of a corresponding string of memory cells, second pillars extending through the additional stack structure and vertically overlying the strings of memory cells, and additional slot structures comprising a dielectric material extending through at least a portion of the additional stack structure and sub-dividing each of the block structures into sub-block structures, the additional slot structures horizontally neighboring the first pillars. Related microelectronic devices, electronic systems, and methods are also described.

Microelectronic devices including tiered stacks including conductive structures isolated by slot structures, and related electronic systems and methods

Some embodiments include a structure having an opening extending into an integrated configuration. A first material is within the opening, and is configured to create an undulating topography relative to a sidewall of the opening. The undulating topography has a surface roughness characterized by a mean roughness parameter Rwhich is the mean peak-to-valley distance along the undulating topography. The Ris at least about 4 nm. A second material is within the opening and along at least a portion of the undulating topography. The first and second materials are compositionally different from one another. Some embodiments include integrated assemblies. Some embodiments include methods of forming integrated assemblies.

Integrated assemblies having rugged material fill, and methods of forming integrated assemblies

A memory array comprising strings of memory cells comprises a vertical stack comprising alternating insulative tiers and conductive tiers. The strings of memory cells in the stack comprise channel-material strings and storage-material strings extending through the insulative tiers and the conductive tiers. At least some of the storage material of the storage-material strings in individual of the insulative tiers are intrinsically less charge-transmissive than is the storage material in the storage-material strings in individual of the conductive tiers. Other aspects, including method, are disclosed.

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

A method of forming polysilicon comprises forming a first polysilicon-comprising material over a substrate, with the first polysilicon-comprising material comprising at least one of elemental carbon and elemental nitrogen at a total of 0.1 to 20 atomic percent. A second polysilicon-comprising material is formed over the first polysilicon-comprising material. The second polysilicon-comprising material comprises less, if any, total elemental carbon and elemental nitrogen than the first polysilicon-comprising material. Other aspects and embodiments, including structure independent of method of manufacture, are disclosed.

Methods of forming an array of elevationally-extending strings of memory cells, methods of forming polysilicon, elevationally-extending strings of memory cells individually comprising a programmable charge storage transistor, and electronic components comprising polysilicon

A method used in forming an array of elevationally-extending strings of memory cells comprises forming a stack comprising vertically-alternating insulative tiers and wordline tiers. The stack comprises an etch-stop tier between a first tier and a second tier of the stack. The etch-stop tier is of different composition from those of the insulative tiers and the wordline tiers. Etching is conducted into the insulative tiers and the wordline tiers that are above the etch-stop tier to the etch-stop tier to form channel openings that have individual bases comprising the etch-stop tier. The etch-stop tier is penetrated through to extend individual of the channel openings there-through. After extending the individual channel openings through the etch-stop tier, etching is conducted into and through the insulative tiers and the wordline tiers that are below the etch-stop tier to extend the individual channel openings deeper into the stack below the etch-stop tier. Transistor channel material is formed in the individual channel openings elevationally along the etch-stop tier and along the insulative tiers and the wordline tiers that are above and below the etch-stop tier. Arrays independent of method are disclosed.

Arrays of elevationally-extending strings of memory cells and methods used in forming an array of elevationally-extending strings of memory cells

A microelectronic device comprises a stack structure comprising a stack structure comprising alternating conductive structures and insulating structures arranged in tiers, each of the tiers individually comprising one of the conductive structures and one of the insulating structures, staircase structures within the stack structure and having steps comprising edges of the tiers, and a doped dielectric material adjacent the steps of the staircase structures and comprising silicon dioxide doped with one or more of boron, phosphorus, carbon, and fluorine, the doped dielectric material having a greater ratio of Si&#x2014;O&#x2014;Si bonds to water than borophosphosilicate glass. Related methods of forming a microelectronic device and related electronic systems are also disclosed.

Methods of forming semiconductor devices, memory cells, and arrays of memory cells include forming a liner on a conductive material and exposing the liner to a radical oxidation process to densify the liner. The densified liner may protect the conductive material from substantial degradation or damage during a subsequent patterning process. A semiconductor device structure, according to embodiments of the disclosure, includes features extending from a substrate and spaced by a trench exposing a portion of a substrate. A liner is disposed on sidewalls of a region of at least one conductive material in each feature. A semiconductor device, according to embodiments of the disclosure, includes memory cells, each comprising a control gate region and a capping region with substantially aligning sidewalls and a charge structure under the control gate region.

Semiconductor device structures with liners

Growing community of inventors

Boise, ID, United States of America

Kunal Shrotri