Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation

Kuo-Chi Tu

Wen-Ting Chu

Chin-Chieh Yang

Chih-Yang Chang

Hsia-Wei Chen

Yu-Wen Liao

Sheng-Hung Shih

Tzu-Yu Chen

Fu-Chen Chang

Wen-Chun You

Jen-Sheng Yang

Chen-Jong Wang

Kuo-Chyuan Tzeng

Chun-Yao Chen

Hsiang-Fan Lee

Wen-Chuan Chiang

Chu-Jie Huang

Yong-Shiuan Tsair

Chih-Hsiang Chang

Chung-Yen Chou

Chih-Yang Pai

Manish Kumar Singh

Nai-Chao Su

Kuo-Cheng Ching

Kuo-Ching Huang

Ching-Pei Hsieh

Luan Conn Tran

Huey-Chi Chu

Tong-Chern Ong

Chih-Hsing Yu

Chang-Sheng Liao

Chi-Tsai Chen

Tien-Lu Lin

Wai-Yi Lien

Yuan-Tai Tseng

Chun-Yang Tsai

Chung-Wei Chang

Te-Hsien Hsieh

Chao-Yang Chen

Cheng-Jun Wu

Pili Huang

Chung-Yi Chen

Mickey Hsieh

Jian-Yu Shen

Chia-Shiung Tsai

Kuo-Cheng Chiang

Alexander Kalnitsky

Yeur-Luen Tu

Chih-Ming Chen

Chung-Cheng Chou

Shou-Gwo Wuu

Hsiao-Hui Tseng

Harry-Hak-Lay Chuang

Po-Hao Lee

I-Ching Chen

Wen-Cheng Chen

Tsung-Hsun Huang

Yi-Shing Chang

Wan-Chen Chen

Yi-Ching Lin

Jonathan Tehan Chen

Hsin-Yu Lai

Yi-Jiun Lin

Wen-Jya Liang

Wan-Yih Lieh

Chin-Yang Chang

C Y Shen

Vincent Pai

Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed towards a memory cell in which an interfacial layer is on a bottom of a ferroelectric layer, between a bottom electrode and a ferroelectric layer. The interfacial layer is a different material than the bottom electrode and the ferroelectric layer and has a top surface with high texture uniformity compared to a top surface of the bottom electrode. The interfacial layer may, for example, be a dielectric, metal oxide, or metal that is: (1) amorphous; (2) monocrystalline; (3) crystalline with low grain size variation; (4) crystalline with a high percentage of grains sharing a common orientation; (5) crystalline with a high percentage of grains having a small grain size; or 6) any combination of the foregoing. It has been appreciated that such materials lead to high texture uniformity at the top surface of the interfacial layer.

Interfacial layer with high texture uniformity for ferroelectric layer enhancement

Various embodiments of the present disclosure are directed towards a memory cell comprising a blocking layer configured to block diffusion of metal from an electrode of the memory cell to a ferroelectric layer of the memory cell. More particularly, the blocking layer and the ferroelectric layer are between a top electrode of the memory cell and a bottom electrode of the memory cell, which both comprise metal. Further, the blocking layer is between the ferroelectric layer and the electrode, which corresponds to one of the top and bottom electrodes. In some embodiments, the metal of the one of the top and bottom electrodes has a lowest electronegativity amongst the metals of top and bottom electrodes and is hence the most reactive and likely to diffuse amongst the metals of top and bottom electrodes.

Ferroelectric memory device with blocking layer

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a memory gate, and a data storage element. The semiconductor substrate includes a memory well which has two source/drain regions and a channel region between the source/drain regions. The memory gate is disposed above the channel region. The data storage element includes a ferroelectric material, and is disposed around the memory gate to separate the memory gate from the channel region.

Integrated circuit and method for manufacturing the same

The present disclosure relates to a ferroelectric memory device that includes a bottom electrode, a ferroelectric structure overlying the bottom electrode, and a top electrode overlying the ferroelectric structure where the bottom electrode includes molybdenum.

MFM device with an enhanced bottom electrode

An integrated circuit device has an RRAM cell that includes a top electrode, an RRAM dielectric layer, and a bottom electrode having a surface that interfaces with the RRAM dielectric layer. Oxides of the bottom electrode are substantially absent from the bottom electrode surface. The bottom electrode has a higher density in a zone adjacent the surface as compared to a bulk region of the bottom electrode. The surface has a roughness Ra of 2 nm or less. A process for forming the surface includes chemical mechanical polishing followed by hydrofluoric acid etching followed by argon ion bombardment. An array of RRAM cells formed by this process is superior in terms of narrow distribution and high separation between low and high resistance states.

RRAM bottom electrode

A semiconductor device includes a random access memory (RAM) structure and a dielectric layer. The RAM structure is over a substrate and includes a bottom electrode layer, a ferroelectric layer over the bottom electrode layer, and a top electrode layer over the ferroelectric layer. The dielectric layer is over the substrate and laterally surrounds a lower portion of the RAM structure. From a cross-sectional view, the bottom electrode layer of the RAM structure has a lateral portion and a vertical portion, and the vertical portion upwardly extends from the lateral portion to a position higher than a top surface of the dielectric layer.

Semiconductor device and method of forming the same

The present disclosure relates to an integrated chip structure. The integrated chip structure includes a first source/drain region and a second source/drain region disposed within a substrate. A select gate is over the substrate between the first source/drain region and the second source/drain region. A ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) device is over the substrate between the select gate and the first source/drain region. A transistor device is disposed on an upper surface of the substrate. The substrate has a recessed surface that is below the upper surface of the substrate and that is laterally separated from the upper surface of the substrate by a boundary isolation structure extending into a trench within the upper surface of the substrate. The FeRAM device is arranged over the recessed surface.

Embedded ferroelectric memory cell

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes depositing a ferroelectric layer over the substrate; performing a first ionized physical deposition process to deposit a top electrode layer over the ferroelectric layer; patterning the top electrode layer into a top electrode; and patterning the ferroelectric layer to into a ferroelectric element below the top electrode.

Method of fabricating semiconductor device comprising ferroelectric layer

Some embodiments relate to a ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) device. The FeRAM device includes a bottom electrode structure and a top electrode overlying the ferroelectric structure. The top electrode has a first width as measured between outermost sidewalls of the top electrode. A ferroelectric structure separates the bottom electrode structure from the top electrode. The ferroelectric structure has a second width as measured between outermost sidewalls of the ferroelectric structure. The second width is greater than the first width such that the ferroelectric structure includes a ledge that reflects a difference between the first width and the second width. A dielectric sidewall spacer structure is disposed on the ledge and covers the outermost sidewalls of the top electrode.

Method and structures pertaining to improved ferroelectric random-access memory (FeRAM)

In some embodiments, the present disclosure relates to a method of forming an integrated chip including forming a ferroelectric layer over a bottom electrode layer, forming a top electrode layer over the ferroelectric layer, performing a first removal process to remove peripheral portions of the bottom electrode layer, the ferroelectric layer, and the top electrode layer, and performing a second removal process using a second etch that is selective to the bottom electrode layer and the top electrode layer to remove portions of the bottom electrode layer and the top electrode layer, so that after the second removal process the ferroelectric layer has a surface that protrudes past a surface of the bottom electrode layer and the top electrode layer.

FeRAM MFM structure with selective electrode etch

In an embodiment, a structure includes one or more first transistors in a first region of a device, the one or more first transistors supporting a memory access function of the device. The structure includes one or more ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) capacitors in a first inter-metal dielectric (IMD) layer over the one or more first transistors in the first region. The structure also includes one or more metal-ferroelectric insulator-metal (MFM) decoupling capacitors in the first IMD layer in a second region of the device. The MFM capacitors may include two or more capacitors coupled in series to act as a voltage divider.

FeRAM decoupling capacitor

A semiconductor device includes a bottom electrode, a top electrode, a sidewall spacer, and a data storage element. The sidewall spacer is disposed aside the top electrode. The data storage element is located between the bottom electrode and the top electrode, and includes a ferroelectric material. The data storage element has a peripheral region which is disposed beneath the sidewall spacer and which has at least 60% of ferroelectric phase. A method for manufacturing the semiconductor device and a method for transforming a non-ferroelectric phase of a ferroelectric material to a ferroelectric phase are also disclosed.

Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same

A method for efficiently waking up ferroelectric memory is provided. A wafer is formed with a plurality of first signal lines, a plurality of second signal lines, a plurality of third signal lines, and a plurality of ferroelectric memory cells that constitute a ferroelectric memory array. Each of the ferroelectric memory cells is electrically connected to one of the first signal lines, one of the second signal lines and one of the third signal lines. Voltage signals are simultaneously applied to the first signal lines, the second signal lines and the third signal lines to induce occurrence of a wake-up effect in the ferroelectric memory cells.

Method for efficiently waking up ferroelectric memory

Methods for programming memory cells of a resistive memory device include applying a voltage pulse sequence to a memory cell to set a logic state of the memory cell. An initial set sequence of voltage pulses may be applied to the memory cell, followed by a reform voltage pulse having an amplitude greater than the amplitudes of the initial set sequence, and within ±5% of the amplitude of a voltage pulse used in an initial forming process. Additional voltage pulses having amplitudes that are less than the amplitude of the reform voltage pulse may be subsequently applied. By applying a reform voltage pulse in the middle of, or at the end of, a memory set sequence including multiple voltage pulses, a resistive memory device may have a larger memory window and improved data retention relative to resistive memory devices programmed using conventional programming methods.

Methods for enlarging the memory window and improving data retention in resistive memory device

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Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

Kuo-Chi Tu