International Business Machines Corporation

Ronald R Silverman

Arup Bhattacharyya

Madhukar L Joshi

Jerome Brett Lasky

Lawrence G Heller

Henry J Geipel, Jr

Charles T Kroll

Andres G Fortino

Howard H Hansen

Paul F Landler

A method for annealing ion implanted regions buried in a semiconductor substrate without the undesirable effects of thermal diffusion which includes the radiation of the substrate by a continuous laser having an emission frequency longer than 600 nanometers which the buried ion implanted regions will absorb strongly but which will be substantially unabsorbed by the unimplanted regions. Superior results can be obtained when the substrate is heated to approximately 300.degree. during this laser annealing.

Method of laser annealing of subsurface ion implanted regions

A method of making a transistor array includes forming a plurality of gate electrodes insulated from a semiconductor substrate having an impurity of a given conductivity, introducing a first impurity having a conductivity opposite to that of the given conductivity into a given region of the substrate which is adjacent to an edge of each of the gate electrodes, introducing a second impurity having the given conductivity into given regions adjacent to selected gate electrodes, the second impurity having a significantly higher diffusivity than that of the first impurity in the semiconductor substrate, and driving the second impurity along the surface of the semiconductor substrate to form in the substrate under each of the selected gate electrodes a region having a concentration of impurity of the given conductivity higher than that of the semiconductor substrate. The transistor array may be used, e.g. to make a read only memory (ROM) by connecting appropriate current sensing means to each of the given regions to indicate the presence or absence of the higher diffusivity impurity when a predetermined voltage is applied to the gate electrodes. In one embodiment, the semiconductor substrate is made of P type conductivity, the first impurity is arsenic which produces N type conductivity regions and the second impurity is boron, which produces P type conductivity. Since boron has a higher diffusivity than arsenic, after they are driven by heating the boron impurity produces a high threshold region under the gate electrode when introduced in sufficiently high concentration.

Method of making a transistor array

A method for making high density integrated circuits which utilizes lift-off techniques provides a structure having a single layer of insulating material for both the dielectric of a storage capacitor and the insulator for a gate or control electrode of a switching element. The steps of the method include forming a thin layer of silicon dioxide on a silicon substrate followed by a layer of first doped polysilicon and, optionally, a layer of silicon nitride and then a layer of photoresist. The layers are etched to the silicon dioxide surface with the exception of the portion of the layers overlying a region defined as the gate or control electrode of the switching element. A second layer of doped polysilicon is then deposited over the remaining structure to provide on the silicon dioxide layer a second conductive layer adjacent to but spaced from the first polysilicon layer forming the gate or control electrode. The silicon nitride, when used, is etched away and a strip of conductive metal is placed in contact with the first conductive polysilicon layer after the second doped polysilicon layer has been appropriately oxidized to form an insulating medium over this second polysilicon layer and between the first and second polysilicon layers. Any desired n+ regions may be formed in the silicon substrate by diffusing impurities into the substrate prior to forming the silicon dioxide layer, or the n+ regions may be formed after the silicon dioxide has been formed by using appropriate ion implantation techniques. By employing this method, high density one device memory arrays may be produced by using the first doped polysilicon layer for forming the gate electrode of a field effect transistor and the second doped polysilicon layer as an electrode of the storage capacitor.

Integrated circuit process utilizing lift-off techniques

This describes a process for fabricating transistor memory cell arrays which includes forming a thin oxide which is continuous over the entire area and which is continuously protected from the time it is deposited so that subsequent processing steps will not cause any change in the thickness of the thin oxide except where deliberately desired. By first depositing a protective masking film and subsequently removing this film in a series of steps, so that this film is lost in the fabrication process, the need for using the dual dielectric insulating layers required in the prior art can be eliminated. By eliminating such dual dielectric insulating layers the performance and density of the arrays can be improved. Semiconductor arrays are formed by providing at a surface of a semiconductor substrate a pair of isolation lines and a plurality of conductive lines orthogonal to the isolation lines. Signal or bias voltages are applied to selected or predetermined conductive lines to provide control electrodes or field shields for the transistors. When the substrate has deposited on its surface an insulating medium, the dopant may be ion implanted through the insulating medium to form, e.g., the source and drain electrode of the transistors. Other elements may be added to the structure to form, e.g., a memory cell.

Field effect transistor lost film fabrication process

Fully integrated non-volatile and fixed threshold field effect devices are fabricated in N-channel technology on a single semiconductor substrate. MOSFET devices of the metal-nitride-oxide-semiconductor (MNOS) devices are used both as fixed threshold support devices and as variable threshold non-volatile memory array devices. Extremely stable and reproducible device characteristics result from the use of low charge containing dielectrics which allow optimum variable threshold stability and allow the use of operating potentials compatable with conventional fixed threshold FET devices. Low temperature processing following deposition of variable threshold gate dielectric enables all enhancement mode operation. A field oxide structure including a thin silicon dioxide layer, an aluminum oxide layer and a nitride layer provides parasitic threshold voltages in excess of 60 volts and prevents sub-threshold leakage.

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Essex Junction, VT, United States of America

Ronald R Silverman