Candescent Technologies Corporation

Philip J Elizondo

Kishore K Chakravorty

David Caudillo

A method for forming a gate electrode. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises depositing a gate metal over an underlying substrate such that a layer of the gate metal is formed above the underlying substrate. In the present invention, the layer of the gate metal is deposited to a thickness approximately the same as the thickness desired for the gate electrode. Next, the present invention deposits polymer particles onto the layer of gate metal. A hard mask layer is then deposited over the polymer particles and the layer of the gate metal. The present invention removes the polymer particles and portions of the hard mask layer which overlie the polymer particles such that first regions of the layer of the gate metal are exposed, and such that second regions of the layer of the gate metal remain covered by the hard mask layer. After the removal step, the present invention etches through the first regions of the layer of the gate metal such that openings are formed completely through the layer of the gate metal at the first regions. After the openings have been formed, the remaining portions of the hard mask layer which overlie the second regions of the layer of the gate metal are removed.

Gate electrode formation method

A method for uniformly depositing of polymer particles onto the surface of a gate metal during the formation of a gate electrode. In one embodiment, the present invention comprises immersing a substrate having a layer of a gate metal disposed over the surface thereof in a fluid bath containing polymer particles. In this embodiment, the fluid bath is contained within a fluid bath tank. Additionally, in the present embodiment, the layer of the gate metal disposed over the substrate has a thickness approximately the same as a desired thickness of the gate electrode to be formed. Next, the present embodiment applies a uniform potential across the surface of the layer of gate metal such that the polymer particles are uniformly deposited onto the layer of the gate metal. In so doing, the present embodiment uniformly deposits the polymer particles onto the layer of the gate metal. In the present embodiment, the polymer particles adhere to the surface of the layer of the gate metal via Van der Waal's forces and/or via a charge difference between the layer of the gate metal and each of the polymer particles. In this embodiment, the polymer particles are deposited over the surface of the layer of the gate metal with a spatial density of approximately 1.times.108 to 1.times.10.sup.12 particles per square centimeter. The present embodiment then removes the substrate having the layer of the gate metal and the particles deposited thereon from the fluid bath.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Philip J Elizondo