Hitachi, Ltd.

Renesas Technology Corp.

Other

Renesas Electronics Corporation

Nobuyoshi Natsuaki

Yoshikazu Tanabe

Satoshi Sakai

Makoto Yoshida

Isamu Asano

Naoki Yamamoto

Masayoshi Saito

Masao Tamura

Yasuo Wada

Yasuhiko Nakatsuka

Toshiaki Nagahama

Masanobu Miyao

Kiyonori Ohyu

Makoto Ohkura

Takashi Tokuyama

Tadashi Suzuki

Naotsugu Yoshihiro

Shoji Shukuri

Masahiro Moniwa

Isao Yoshida

Eiichi Murakami

Tohru Nakamura

Hideo Sunami

Takahide Ikeda

Minoru Nagata

Shinichiro Mitani

Hiroo Masuda

Terunori Warabisako

Kazuo Nakazato

Hiroshi Ishihara

Takao Miyazaki

Masahiko Ogirima

Akira Shintani

Yuuichi Madokoro

Hidekazu Okuhira

Msao Tamura

Shoji Syukuri

Katsumi Tsuneno

Kimiko Aoyama

Hisako Sato

Takahide Nakamura

A method for fabricating a semiconductor integrated circuit device of the invention comprises feeding oxidation species containing a low concentration of water, which is generated from hydrogen and oxygen by the catalytic action, to the main surface of or in the vicinity of a semiconductor wafer, and forming a thin oxide film serving as a gate insulating film of an MOS transistor and having a thickness of 5 nm or below on the main surface of the semiconductor wafer at an oxide film-growing rate sufficient to ensure fidelity in formation of oxide film and uniformity in thickness of the oxide film.

Method for fabricating semiconductor integrated circuit device

A method for fabricating a semiconductor integrated circuit device of the invention comprises feeding oxidation species containing a low concentration of water, which is generated from hydrogen and oxygen by the catalytic action, to the main surface of or in the vicinity of a semiconductor wafer, and forming a thin oxide film serving as a gate insulating film of an MOS transistor and having a thickness of 5 nm or below on the main surface of the semiconductor wafer at an oxide film-growing rate sufficient to ensure fidelity in formation of an oxide film and uniformity in thickness of the oxide film.

With a view to preventing the oxidation of a metal film at the time of light oxidation treatment after gate patterning and at the same time to making it possible to control the reproducibility of oxide film formation and homogeneity of oxide film thickness at gate side-wall end portions, in a gate processing step using a poly-metal, a gate electrode is formed by patterning a gate electrode material which has been deposited over a semiconductor waferA having a gate oxide film formed thereon and has a poly-metal structure and then, the principal surface of the semiconductor waferA heated to a predetermined temperature or vicinity thereof is supplied with a hydrogen gas which contains water at a low concentration, the water having been formed from hydrogen and oxygen by a catalytic action, to selectively oxidize the principal surface of the semiconductor waferA, whereby the profile of the side-wall end portions of the gate electrode is improved

Fabrication process of a semiconductor integrated circuit device

With a view to preventing the oxidation of a metal film at the time of light oxidation treatment after gate patterning and at the same time to making it possible to control the reproducibility of oxide film formation and homogeneity of oxide film thickness at gate side-wall end portions, in a gate processing step using a poly-metal, a gate electrode is formed by patterning a gate electrode material which has been deposited over a semiconductor waferA having a gate oxide film formed thereon and has a poly-metal structure and then, the principal surface of the semiconductor waferA heated to a predetermined temperature or vicinity thereof is supplied with a hydrogen gas which contains water at a low concentration, the water having been formed from hydrogen and oxygen by a catalytic action, to selectively oxidize the principal surface of the semiconductor waferA, whereby the profile of the side-wall end portions of the gate electrode is improved.

With a view to preventing the oxidation of a metal film at the time of light oxidation treatment after gate patterning and at the same time to making it possible to control the reproducibility of oxide film formation and homogeneity of oxide film thickness at gate side-wall end portions, in a gate processing step using a poly-metal, a gate electrode is formed by patterning a gate electrode material which has been deposited over a semiconductor wafer A having a gate oxide film formed thereon and has a poly-metal structure and then, the principal surface of the semiconductor wafer A heated to a predetermined temperature or vicinity thereof is supplied with a hydrogen gas which contains water at a low concentration, the water having been formed from hydrogen and oxygen by a catalytic action, to selectively oxidize the principal surface of the semiconductor wafer A, whereby the profile of the side-wall end portions of the gate electrode is improved.

In a gas-phase treating process of a semiconductor wafer using hydrogen, there is provided a technique for safely eliminating the hydrogen in an exhaust gas discharged from a gas-phase treating apparatus. The profile at the end portions of the side walls of gate electrodes of a poly-metal structure is improved by forming the gate electrodes over a semiconductor wafer IA having a gate oxide film and then by supplying the semiconductor wafer A with a hydrogen gas containing a low concentration of water, as generated from hydrogen and oxygen by catalytic action, to oxidize the principal face of the semiconductor wafer A selectively. After this, the hydrogen in the exhaust gas, as discharged from an oxidizing furnace, is completely converted into water by causing it to react with oxygen by a catalytic method.

Process for manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuit device including treatment of gas used in the process

Growing community of inventors

Higashiyamato, Japan

Nobuyoshi Natsuaki