Intel Corporation

Mcafee, Inc.

Oleg Golonzka

Tahir Ghani

Christopher J Wiegand

Justin Brockman

Brian S Doyle

Mark L Doczy

Kevin O'Brien

Kaan Oguz

Daniel Ouellette

Swaminathan Sivakumar

Md Tofizur Rahman

Biswajeet Guha

Charles Henry Wallace

Bernhard Sell

William Hsu

Tofizur Rahman

Angeline Smith

Kinyip Phoa

Chung-Hsun Lin

Dax M Crum

Elliot Tan

Ayan Kar

Kalyan C Kolluru

Dan S Lavric

Nicholas A Thomson

Leonard P Guler

Joseph M Steigerwald

Timothy E Glassman

Mohit K Haran

Juan G Alzate-Vinasco

Nathan D Jack

Cory E Weber

Jeffrey S Leib

Michael Harper

Daniel B Bergstrom

Reken Patel

Willy Rachmady

Patrick R Morrow

Charles C Kuo

Elijah V Karpov

Mauro J Kobrinsky

Christopher J Jezewski

Yih Wang

Kevin J Lee

Ruth Amy Brain

Nadia M Rahhal-Orabi

Satyarth Suri

Kevin P O'brien

Andrew Smith

Brian Maertz

Nathan Strutt

Robert M Bigwood

Benjamin Orr

Hossam A Abdallah

Pedro Quintero

Mohammad Hasan

Albert Chen

Ajay K Sharma

Dragos Seghete

James Pellegren

Namrata S Asuri

Hiten Kothari

Hemant V Deshpande

Orb Acton

Nathan Jack

Ashutosh Ashutosh

Omair Saadat

Lukas M Baumgartel

Michael Robinson

Huiying Liu

Daniel R Lamborn

Daniel B O'Brien

Matthew J Andrus

Niels Zussblatt

Jeffrey Miles Tan

Benjamin Kriegel

Aaron Littlejohn

Juan G Alzate Vinasco

Arnel M Fajardo

Christopher Kenyon

Shu Zhou

Anthony A St Amour

Jitendra Kumar Jha

Mengcheng Lu

Conor P Puls

David J Towner

Gokul Malyavanatham

Timothy F Crimmins

Yu-Jin Chen

Anant H Jahagirdar

Vijay Ramachandrarao

Vivek Thirtha

Nitesh Kumar

James S Chung

Stephen Wu

Philip E Heil

M D Tofizur Rahman

Rebecca J Castellano

Tarun Bansal

James ODonnell

A wrap-around source/drain trench contact structure is described. A plurality of semiconductor fins extend from a semiconductor substrate. A channel region is disposed in each fin between a pair of source/drain regions. An epitaxial semiconductor layer covers the top surface and sidewall surfaces of each fin over the source/drain regions, defining high aspect ratio gaps between adjacent fins. A pair of source/drain trench contacts are electrically coupled to the epitaxial semiconductor layers. The source/drain trench contacts comprise a conformal metal layer and a fill metal. The conformal metal layer conforms to the epitaxial semiconductor layers. The fill metal comprises a plug and a barrier layer, wherein the plug fills a contact trench formed above the fins and the conformal metal layer, and the barrier layer lines the plug to prevent interdiffusion of the conformal metal layer material and plug material.

Wrap-around trench contact structure and methods of fabrication

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having devices with channel-to-substrate electrical contact are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires above a first fin. A channel region of the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires is electrically coupled to the first fin by a semiconductor material layer directly between the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires and the first fin. A first gate stack is over the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires is above a second fin. A channel region of the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires is electrically isolated from the second fin. A second gate stack is over the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires.

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having devices with channel-to-substrate electrical contact

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having pre-spacer-deposition cut gates are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires and a second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A first gate stack is over the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, and a second gate stack is over the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. An end of the second gate stack is spaced apart from an end of the first gate stack by a gap. The integrated circuit structure also includes a dielectric structure having a first portion forming a gate spacer along sidewalls of the first gate stack, a second portion forming a gate spacer along sidewalls of the second gate stack, and a third portion completely filling the gap, the third portion continuous with the first and second portions.

Fabrication of gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having pre-spacer deposition cut gates

Integrated circuit structures having metal gates with tapered plugs, and methods of fabricating integrated circuit structures having metal gates with tapered plugs, are described. For example, includes a fin having a portion protruding above a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure. A gate dielectric material layer is over the protruding portion of the fin and over the STI structure. A conductive gate layer is over the gate dielectric material layer. A conductive gate fill material is over the conductive gate layer. A dielectric gate plug is laterally spaced apart from the fin. The dielectric gate plug is on the STI structure, and the dielectric gate plug has sides tapered outwardly from a top of the dielectric gate plug to a bottom of the dielectric gate plug.

Integrated circuit structures having metal gates with tapered plugs

An integrated circuit structure comprises a first and second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires in a PMOS region and in an NMOS region. A first gate stack having a P-type conductive layer surrounds the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A second gate stack surrounds the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. In one embodiment, the second gate stack has an N-type conductive layer, the P-type conductive layer is over the second gate stack, and an N-type conductive fill is between N-type conductive layer and the P-type conductive layer to provide same polarity metal filled gates. In another embodiment, the second gate stack has an N-type conductive layer comprising Titanium (Ti) and 'Nitrogen (N) having a low saturation thickness of 3-3.5 nm surrounding the nanowires, and the N-type conductive layer is covered by the P-type conductive layer.

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having uniform threshold voltages and tight gate endcap tolerances

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having additive metal gates and gate dielectrics with a dipole layer are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, and a second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A first gate stack is over the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, the first gate stack having a P-type conductive layer over a first gate dielectric including a high-k dielectric layer on a first dipole material layer. A second gate stack is over the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, the second gate stack having an N-type conductive layer over a second gate dielectric including the high-k dielectric layer on a second dipole material layer.

Fabrication of gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having additive metal gates and gate dielectrics with a dipole layer

Gate-all-around structures having devices with source/drain-to-substrate electrical contact are described. An integrated circuit structure includes a first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires above a first fin. A first gate stack is over the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A first pair of epitaxial source or drain structures is at first and second ends of the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. One or both of the first pair of epitaxial source or drain structures is directly electrically coupled to the first fin. A second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires is above a second fin. A second gate stack is over the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A second pair of epitaxial source or drain structures is at first and second ends of the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. Both of the second pair of epitaxial source or drain structures is electrically isolated from the second fin.

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having devices with source/drain-to-substrate electrical contact

Techniques are disclosed for realizing a two-dimensional target lithography feature/pattern by decomposing (splitting) it into multiple unidirectional target features that, when aggregated, substantially (e.g., fully) represent the original target feature without leaving an unrepresented remainder (e.g., a whole-number quantity of unidirectional target features). The unidirectional target features may be arbitrarily grouped such that, within a grouping, all unidirectional target features share a common target width value. Where multiple such groupings are provided, individual groupings may or may not have the same common target width value. In some cases, a series of reticles is provided, each reticle having a mask pattern correlating to a grouping of unidirectional target features. Exposure of a photoresist material via the aggregated series of reticles substantially (e.g., fully) produces the original target feature/pattern. The pattern decomposition techniques may be integrated into any number of patterning processes, such as litho-freeze-litho-etch and litho-etch-litho-etch patterning processes.

Pattern decomposition lithography techniques

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having adjacent structures for sub-fin electrical contact are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a semiconductor island on a semiconductor substrate. A vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires is above a fin protruding from the semiconductor substrate. A channel region of the vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires is electrically isolated from the fin. The fin is electrically coupled to the semiconductor island. A gate stack is over the vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires.

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having adjacent structures for sub-fin electrical contact

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having a removed substrate, and methods of fabricating gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having a removed substrate, are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A gate stack surrounds a channel region of the vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A pair of non-discrete epitaxial source or drain structures is at first and second ends of the vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A pair of dielectric spacers is between the pair of non-discrete epitaxial source or drain structures and the gate stack. The pair of dielectric spacers and the gate stack have co-planar top surfaces. The pair of dielectric spacers, the gate stack and the pair of non-discrete epitaxial source or drain structures have co-planar bottom surfaces.

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having removed substrate

Methods and associated structures of forming a microelectronic device are described. Those methods may include forming a structure comprising a first contact metal disposed on a source/drain contact of a substrate, and a second contact metal disposed on a top surface of the first contact metal, wherein the second contact metal is disposed within an ILD disposed on a top surface of a metal gate disposed on the substrate.

Method of forming stacked trench contacts and structures formed thereby

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having additive metal gates are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, and a second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A first gate stack is over the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, the first gate stack having a P-type conductive layer with a first portion surrounding the nanowires of the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires and a second portion extending laterally beside and spaced apart from the first portion. A second gate stack is over the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, the second gate stack having an N-type conductive layer with a first portion surrounding the nanowires of the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires and a second portion adjacent to and in contact with the second portion of the P-type conductive layer.

Fabrication of gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having additive metal gates

Gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having molybdenum nitride metal gates and gate dielectrics with a dipole layer are described. For example, an integrated circuit structure includes a first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, and a second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires. A first gate stack is over the first vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, the first gate stack having a P-type conductive layer on a first gate dielectric. The P-type conductive layer includes molybdenum and nitrogen. A second gate stack is over the second vertical arrangement of horizontal nanowires, the second gate stack having an N-type conductive layer on a second gate dielectric.

Fabrication of gate-all-around integrated circuit structures having molybdenum nitride metal gates and gate dielectrics with a dipole layer

Gate aligned contacts and methods of forming gate aligned contacts are described. For example, a method of fabricating a semiconductor structure includes forming a plurality of gate structures above an active region formed above a substrate. The gate structures each include a gate dielectric layer, a gate electrode, and sidewall spacers. A plurality of contact plugs is formed, each contact plug formed directly between the sidewall spacers of two adjacent gate structures of the plurality of gate structures. A plurality of contacts is formed, each contact formed directly between the sidewall spacers of two adjacent gate structures of the plurality of gate structures. The plurality of contacts and the plurality of gate structures are formed subsequent to forming the plurality of contact plugs.

Gate aligned contact and method to fabricate same

Growing community of inventors

Beaverton, OR, United States of America

Oleg Golonzka