Intel Corporation

Intel Corporatiion

Miriam Ruth Reshotko

Matthew V Metz

Abhishek A Sharma

Van H Le

Kevin Lai Lin

Manish Chandhok

Jack T Kavalieros

Benjamin Chu-Kung

Christopher J Jezewski

Bruce A Block

Nafees Kabir

Gilbert W Dewey

Shriram Shivaraman

Tahir Ghani

Elijah V Karpov

Hui Jae Yoo

Tristan A Tronic

Jiun-Ruey Chen

Noriyuki Sato

James M Blackwell

Shaofeng Yu

Ramanan Chebiam

Carl H Naylor

Sudipto Naskar

Travis W LaJoie

John J Plombon

Jeffery D Bielefeld

Michael Christenson

Ian A Young

Seung Hoon Sung

Mauro J Kobrinsky

Been-Yih Jin

Rami Hourani

Peter Chang

Ibrahim Ban

Nazila Haratipour

Ravi Pillarisetty

Sean T Ma

Yih Wang

Wilfred Gomes

Richard E Schenker

Scott Bruce Clendenning

Fatih Hamzaoglu

Titash Rakshit

Eungnak Han

Thomas P Thomas

Lawrence D Wong

Brandon Barnett

Gurpreet Singh

Arnab Sen Gupta

Thomas N Marieb

Paul Davids

Sarah Atanasov

Flavio Griggio

Zhiyong Ma

Albert Chen

Li Huey Tan

Jia-Hung Tseng

Vincent E Dorgan

Kent Millard

Jeffrey Hicks

Ryan E Arch

Inanc Meric

Rahim Kasim

Alekhya Nimmagadda

Nikholas G Toledo

Ilan Tsameret

Wilhelm Melitz

Brian Corbett

Roberto Pagano

Douglas N Stunkard

Ande Kitamura

Adjacent interconnect lines are in staggered, vertically spaced positions, which accordingly reduces their capacitive coupling within one level of interconnect metallization. Short and tall interconnect via openings are landed on the vertically staggered interconnect lines. Cap material selectively deposited upon upper ones of the staggered interconnect lines limits over etch of the short vias while the tall vias are advanced toward lower ones of the staggered interconnect lines. The via openings of differing depth may be filled, for example with a single damascene metallization process that defines a co-planar top surface for all via metallization over the staggered, vertically spaced interconnect lines.

Staggered vertically spaced integrated circuit line metallization with differential vias and metal-selective deposition

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

An example IC device includes a frontend layer and a backend layer with a metallization stack. The metallization stack includes a backend memory layer with a plurality of memory cells with backend transistors, and a layer with a plurality of conductive interconnects (e.g., a plurality of conductive lines) and air gaps between adjacent ones of the plurality of interconnects. Providing air gaps in upper metal layers of metallization stacks of IC devices may advantageously reduce parasitic effects in the IC devices because such effects are typically proportional to the dielectric constant of a surrounding medium. In turn, reduction in the parasitic effects may lead to improvements in performance of, or requirements placed on, the backend memory.

Backend memory with air gaps in upper metal layers

Embodiments herein describe techniques for a semiconductor device, which may include a substrate, and a U-shaped channel above the substrate. The U-shaped channel may include a channel bottom, a first channel wall and a second channel wall parallel to each other, a source area, and a drain area. A gate dielectric layer may be above the substrate and in contact with the channel bottom. A gate electrode may be above the substrate and in contact with the gate dielectric layer. A source electrode may be coupled to the source area, and a drain electrode may be coupled to the drain area. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Self-aligned contacts for thin film transistors

Embodiments disclosed herein include thin film transistors and methods of forming such thin film transistors. In an embodiment, the thin film transistor may comprise a substrate, a gate electrode over the substrate, and a gate dielectric stack over the gate electrode. In an embodiment, the gate dielectric stack may comprise a plurality of layers. In an embodiment, the plurality of layers may comprise an amorphous layer. In an embodiment, the thin film transistor may also comprise a semiconductor layer over the gate dielectric. In an embodiment, the semiconductor layer is a crystalline semiconductor layer. In an embodiment, the thin film transistor may also comprise a source electrode and a drain electrode.

Multi-dielectric gate stack for crystalline thin film transistors

Embodiments include an interconnect structure and methods of forming such an interconnect structure. In an embodiment, the interconnect structure comprises a first interlayer dielectric (ILD) and a first interconnect layer with a plurality of first conductive traces partially embedded in the first ILD. In an embodiment, an etch stop layer is formed over surfaces of the first ILD and sidewall surfaces of the first conductive traces. In an embodiment, the interconnect structure further comprises a second interconnect layer that includes a plurality of second conductive traces. In an embodiment, a via between the first interconnect layer and the second interconnect layer may be self-aligned with the first interconnect layer.

Grating replication using helmets and topographically-selective deposition

Embodiments herein describe techniques for a semiconductor device including a transistor. The transistor includes a first metal contact as a source electrode, a second metal contact as a drain electrode, a channel area between the source electrode and the drain electrode, and a third metal contact aligned with the channel area as a gate electrode. The first metal contact may be located in a first metal layer along a first direction. The second metal contact may be located in a second metal layer along the first direction, in parallel with the first metal contact. The third metal contact may be located in a third metal layer along a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction. The third metal layer is between the first metal layer and the second metal layer. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Vertical architecture of thin film transistors

Techniques are disclosed for providing cladded metal interconnects. Given an interconnect trench, a barrier layer is conformally deposited onto the bottom and sidewalls of the trench. A first layer of a bilayer adhesion liner is selectively deposited on the barrier layer, and a second layer of the bilayer adhesion liner is selectively deposited on the first layer. An interconnect metal is deposited into the trench above the bilayer adhesion liner. Any excess interconnect metal is recessed to get the top surface of the interconnect metal to a proper plane. Recessing the excess interconnect metal may include recessing previously deposited excess adhesion liner and barrier layer materials. The exposed top surface of the interconnect metal in the trench is then capped with the bilayer adhesion liner materials to provide a cladded metal interconnect core. In some embodiments, the adhesion liner is a single layer adhesion liner.

Cladded metal interconnects

An interconnect structure is disclosed. The interconnect structure includes a first line of interconnects and a second line of interconnects. The first line of interconnects and the second line of interconnects are staggered. The individual interconnects of the second line of interconnects are laterally offset from individual interconnects of the first line of interconnects. A dielectric material is adjacent to at least a portion of the individual interconnects of at least one of the first line of interconnects and the second line of interconnects.

Staggered lines for interconnect performance improvement and processes for forming such

Interconnect structures are disclosed. An example includes conductive traces over a first dielectric layer, dielectric helmet structures over top surfaces of the conductive traces, and a second dielectric layer over the helmet structures. Spaces between adjacent ones of conductive traces are devoid of material. A bottom surface of the second dielectric layer is between top surfaces of the dielectric structures and bottom surfaces of the helmet structures, or co-planar with the top surface of the helmet structures, but the airgap extends above tops of the conductive traces. Another example includes a dielectric adjacent to upper sections but not lower sections of conductive traces, so as to provide airgaps between adjacent lower sections. Alternatively, a first dielectric material is adjacent the upper sections and a second compositionally different dielectric material is adjacent the lower sections. In either case, the sidewalls of the upper sections of the interconnect features may include scalloping.

Helmet structures for semiconductor interconnects

A method for fabricating an integrated circuit comprises forming one or more conductive features supported by pillars of a first insulating layer in a first metal layer. One or more vias are formed in a via layer, the one or more vias over and on the first metal layer and in electrical connection with ones of the one or more conductive features. Subsequent to via formation, air gaps are between adjacent ones of the one or more conductive features in the first metal layer to separate the one or more conductive features. A second insulating layer is formed over the one or more conductive features and over the one or more vias, such that the second insulating layer covers the first metal layer and the via layer while bridging over the air gaps, wherein tops the air gaps are substantially coplanar with tops of the one or more conductive features.

Maskless air gap enabled by a single damascene process

Embodiments herein describe techniques for a thin-film transistor (TFT), which may include a substrate oriented in a horizontal direction and a transistor above the substrate. The transistor includes a gate electrode above the substrate, a gate dielectric layer around the gate electrode, and a channel layer around the gate dielectric layer, all oriented in a vertical direction substantially orthogonal to the horizontal direction. Furthermore, a source electrode or a drain electrode is above or below the channel layer, separated from the gate electrode, and in contact with a portion of the channel layer. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Contact electrodes for vertical thin-film transistors

Embodiments herein describe techniques for a semiconductor device including a substrate and a transistor above the substrate. The transistor includes a channel layer above the substrate, a conductive contact stack above the substrate and in contact with the channel layer, and a gate electrode separated from the channel layer by a gate dielectric layer. The conductive contact stack may be a drain electrode or a source electrode. In detail, the conductive contact stack includes at least a metal layer, and at least a metal sealant layer to reduce hydrogen diffused into the channel layer through the conductive contact stack. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Contact stacks to reduce hydrogen in thin film transistor

Growing community of inventors

Portland, OR, United States of America

Miriam Ruth Reshotko