Intel Corporation

Manish Chandhok

Kevin Lai Lin

Florian Gstrein

Richard E Schenker

Eungnak Han

Charles Henry Wallace

Paul Anton Nyhus

Nafees Kabir

Gurpreet Singh

Robert L Bristol

Hui Jae Yoo

Rami Hourani

Tristan A Tronic

Marie Krysak

Sudipto Naskar

Christopher J Jezewski

Jeffery D Bielefeld

Elijah V Karpov

James M Blackwell

Ramanan Chebiam

Miriam Ruth Reshotko

Noriyuki Sato

David N Shykind

Bryan J Rice

Abhishek A Sharma

Leonard P Guler

Scott Bruce Clendenning

Curtis W Ward

Colin T Carver

Eric M Panning

Matthew V Metz

Swaminathan Sivakumar

Michael Scott Goldstein

Roman Caudillo

Elliot Tan

Jasmeet S Chawla

Richard F Vreeland

Todd R Younkin

Cheyun Lin

Kramadhati V Ravi

Robert P Meagley

Carl H Naylor

Mohit K Haran

Brandon Barnett

Heidi B Cao

Michael Christenson

Jiun-Ruey Chen

Jinnie Aloysius

Ruth Amy Brain

Yan A Borodovsky

Satyarth Suri

Wang Yueh

Stephanie A Bojarski

Brennen Karl Mueller

Reken Patel

Melissa K Shell

William Brezinski

Nityan Labros Nair

Brandon Jay Holybee

Xuanxuan Chen

Rahim Kasim

Gobind Bisht

Jonathan Laib

Giselle Elbaz

Ian A Young

Mark T Bohr

Mauro J Kobrinsky

Kevin O'Brien

Michael D Goodner

Urusa Alaan

Michael L McSwiney

Vijayakumar S Ramachandrarao

Allen B Gardiner

Chi-Hwa Tsang

Jessica M Torres

Sarah Atanasov

Sang Hun Lee

Tayseer Mahdi

Seongtae Jeong

Sean Michael Pursel

Ryan Pearce

Robert Leet

John D Brooks

Chris Kenyon

Julian Montoya

Thomas Christopher Hoff

Gauri Nabar

Asad Iqbal

Marie T Conte

Ramanan V Chebiam

IC interconnect structures including subtractively patterned features. Feature ends may be defined through multiple patterning of multiple cap materials for reduced misregistration. Subtractively patterned features may be lines integrated with damascene vias or with subtractively patterned vias, or may be vias integrated with damascene lines or with subtractively patterned lines. Subtractively patterned vias may be deposited as part of a planar metal layer and defined currently with interconnect lines. Subtractively patterned features may be integrated with air gap isolation structures. Subtractively patterned features may be include a barrier material on the bottom, top, or sidewall. A bottom barrier of a subtractively patterned features may be deposited with an area selective technique to be absent from an underlying interconnect feature. A barrier of a subtractively patterned feature may comprise graphene or a chalcogenide of a metal in the feature or in a seed layer.

Subtractively patterned interconnect structures for integrated circuits

Contact over active gate (COAG) structures with conductive trench contact taps are described. In an example, an integrated circuit structure includes a plurality of gate structures above a substrate, each of the gate structures including a gate insulating layer thereon. A plurality of conductive trench contact structures is alternating with the plurality of gate structures, each of the conductive trench contact structures including a trench insulating layer thereon. One of the plurality of conductive trench contact structures includes a conductive tap structure protruding through the corresponding trench insulating layer. An interlayer dielectric material is above the trench insulating layers and the gate insulating layers. A conductive structure is in direct contact with the conductive tap structure of the one of the plurality of conductive trench contact structures.

Contact over active gate structures with conductive trench contact taps for advanced integrated circuit structure fabrication

Embodiments herein describe techniques for a semiconductor device including a three dimensional capacitor. The three dimensional capacitor includes a pole, and one or more capacitor units stacked around the pole. A capacitor unit of the one or more capacitor units includes a first electrode surrounding and coupled to the pole, a dielectric layer surrounding the first electrode, and a second electrode surrounding the dielectric layer. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Capacitor architectures in semiconductor devices

Integrated circuitry comprising devices electrically coupled through a plurality of interconnect levels in which lines of a first and second interconnect level are coupled through a planar slab via. An interconnect line may include a horizontal line segment within one of the first or second interconnect levels, and the slab via may be a vertical line segment between the first and second interconnect levels. A planar slab via may comprise one or more layers of conductive material, which have been deposited upon a planarized substrate material that lacks any features that the conductive material must fill. A planar slab via may be subtractively defined concurrently with a horizontal line of one or both of the first or second interconnect levels.

Planar slab vias for integrated circuit interconnects

Described herein are IC devices include tight-pitched patterned metal layers, such as metal gratings, and processes for forming such patterned metal layers. The processes include subtractive metal patterning, where portions of a metal layer are etched and replaced with an insulator to form the metal grating. Masks for etching portions of the metal layer are generated using directed self-assembly (DSA). In some examples, multiple etching steps are performed, e.g., to generate metal lines at a first pitch, and to add additional lines at half of the first pitch. In some examples, additive metal patterning is performed in addition to subtractive metal patterning.

Directed self-assembly enabled subtractive metal patterning

Described herein are IC devices include patterned conductive layers, such as metal gratings and gate layers, and patterned layers formed over the patterned conductive layers using a directed self-assembly (DSA)-enabled process with DSA assisting features. A patterned conductive layer may have non-uniform features, such as large regions of insulator within a metal grating, or varying gate lengths across a gate layer. The DSA assisting features enable the formation of patterned layers, e.g., layers with different hard mask materials replicating the structure of the conductive layer below, even over non-uniform features.

Directed self-assembly enabled patterning over metal layers using assisting features

Methods for fabricating metallization stacks with one or more self-aligned staggered metal lines, and related semiconductor devices, are disclosed. Methods and devices are based on providing a spacer material conformal to bottom metal lines of a first layer of a metallization stack. By carefully designing parameters of the deposition process, the spacer material may be deposited in such a manner that, for each pair of adjacent bottom metal lines of the first layer, an opening in the spacer material is formed in a layer above the bottom metal lines (i.e., in the second layer of the metallization stack), the opening being substantially equidistant to the adjacent bottom metal lines of the first layer. Top metal lines are formed by filling the openings with an electrically conductive material, resulting in the top metal lines being self-aligned and staggered with respect to the bottom metal lines.

Metallization stacks with self-aligned staggered metal lines

Contact over active gate (COAG) structures are described. In an example, an integrated circuit structure includes a plurality of gate structures above substrate, each of the gate structures including a gate insulating layer thereon. A plurality of conductive trench contact structures is alternating with the plurality of gate structures, each of the conductive trench contact structures including a trench insulating layer thereon. A remnant of a di-block-co-polymer is over a portion of the plurality of gate structures or the plurality of conductive trench contact structures. An interlayer dielectric material is over the di-block-co-polymer, over the plurality of gate structures, and over the plurality of conductive trench contact structures. An opening in the interlayer dielectric material. A conductive structure is in the opening, the conductive structure in direct contact with a corresponding one of the trench contact structures or with a corresponding one of the gate contact structures.

Contact over active gate structures using directed self-assembly for advanced integrated circuit structure fabrication

Described herein are IC devices include vias deposited in a regular array, e.g., a hexagonal array, and processes for depositing vias in a regular array. The process includes depositing a guiding pattern over a metal grating, depositing a diblock copolymer over the guiding pattern, and causing the diblock copolymer to self-assemble such one polymer forms an array of cylinders over metal portions of the metal grating. The polymer layer can be converted into a hard mask layer, with one hard mask material forming the cylinders, and a different hard mask material surrounding the cylinders. A cylinder can be selectively etched, and a via material deposited in the cylindrical hole to form a via.

Self-assembled guided hole and via patterning over grating

Advanced lithography techniques including sub-10 nm pitch patterning and structures resulting therefrom are described. Self-assembled devices and their methods of fabrication are described.

Advanced lithography and self-assembled devices

Techniques for selectively removing a metal or conductive material during processing of a semiconductor die for high-voltage applications are provided. In some embodiments, the techniques treat a metallized semiconductor die to transfer a feature from a patterned photoresist layer deposited on the metallized semiconductor die. In addition, the patterned metallized semiconductor die can be subjected to an etch process to remove an amount of metal according to the feature in the pattern, resulting in a treated metallized semiconductor die that defines an opening adjacent to at least a pair of neighboring metal interconnects in the die. The treated metallized semiconductor die can be further treated to backfill the opening with a dielectric material, resulting in a metallized semiconductor die having a backfilled dielectric member. Such a metallized semiconductor die can be further processed according to a process of record until metallization, after which additional selective removal of another amount of metal can be implemented. Semiconductor dies having neighboring metal interconnects separated by backfilled dielectric regions also are provided.

Selective metal removal for conductive interconnects in integrated circuitry

An integrated circuit interconnect structure includes a first metallization level including a first metal line having a first sidewall and a second sidewall extending a length in a first direction. A second metal line is adjacent to the first metal line and a dielectric is between the first metal line and the second metal line. A second metallization level is above the first metallization level where the second metallization level includes a third metal line extending a length in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The third metal line extends over the first metal line and the second metal line but not beyond the first sidewall. A conductive via is between the first metal line and the third metal line where the conductive via does not extend beyond the first sidewall or beyond the second sidewall.

Self aligned gratings for tight pitch interconnects and methods of fabrication

Disclosed herein are colored gratings in microelectronic structures. For example, a microelectronic structure may include first conductive structures alternating with second conductive structures, wherein individual ones of the first conductive structures include a bottom portion and a top portion, individual cap structures are on individual ones of the second conductive structures, the bottom portions of the first conductive structures are laterally spaced apart from and aligned with the second conductive structures, and the top portions of the first conductive structures are laterally spaced apart from and aligned with the cap structures. In some embodiments, a microelectronic structure may include one or more unordered lamellar regions laterally spaced apart from and aligned with the first conductive structures.

Colored gratings in microelectronic structures

Contact over active gate structures with metal oxide cap structures are described. In an example, an integrated circuit structure includes a plurality of gate structures above substrate, each of the gate structures including a gate insulating layer thereon. A plurality of conductive trench contact structures is alternating with the plurality of gate structures, each of the conductive trench contact structures including a metal oxide cap structure thereon. An interlayer dielectric material is over the plurality of gate structures and over the plurality of conductive trench contact structures. An opening is in the interlayer dielectric material and in a gate insulating layer of a corresponding one of the plurality of gate structures. A conductive via is in the opening, the conductive via in direct contact with the corresponding one of the plurality of gate structures, and the conductive via on a portion of one or more of the metal oxide cap structures.

Contact over active gate structures with metal oxide-caped contacts to inhibit shorting

Contact over active gate structure with metal oxide layers are described are described. In an example, an integrated circuit structure includes a plurality of gate structures above substrate, each of the gate structures including a gate insulating layer thereon. A plurality of conductive trench contact structures is alternating with the plurality of gate structures. A portion of one of the plurality of trench contact structures has a metal oxide layer thereon. An interlayer dielectric material is over the plurality of gate structures and over the plurality of conductive trench contact structures. An opening is in the interlayer dielectric material and in a gate insulating layer of a corresponding one of the plurality of gate structures. A conductive via is in the opening, the conductive via in direct contact with the corresponding one of the plurality of gate structures, and the conductive via on the metal oxide layer.

Contact over active gate structures with metal oxide layers to inhibit shorting

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Beaverton, OR, United States of America

Manish Chandhok