Micron Technology Incorporated

Nan Ya Technology Corporation

Sanjeev Sapra

Jerome A Imonigie

Devesh Dadhich Shreeram

Prashant Raghu

Sevim Korkmaz

Michael Tristan Andreas

Kangle Li

Darwin Franseda Fan

Shen Hu

Ian K McDaniel

Pranav P Sharma

John David Hopkins

Gordon A Haller

Ronald Allen Weimer

Jian Li

Anish A Khandekar

Janos Fucsko

Matthew N Rocklein

Vinay Nair

Vinayak Shamanna

Diem Thy N Tran

James Mathew

Nicholas R Tapias

Dewali Ray

Paul A Paduano

Duane M Goodner

Vivek Yadav

Sanh D Tang

Fatma Arzum Simsek-Ege

Thomas Arthur Figura

Rita J Klein

Christopher W Petz

Niraj B Rana

Brett W Busch

Andrew Li

Sourabh Dhir

Ian C Laboriante

Gurpreet S Lugani

Armin Saeedi Vahdat

Masihhur R Laskar

Sheng-Wei Yang

Sanket S Kelkar

Hung-Ming Tsai

An-Jen B Cheng

Ramaswamy Ishwar Venkatanarayanan

Adriel Jebin Jacob Jebaraj

Ashwin Panday

Srinivasan Balakrishnan

Brian J Kerley

Chad Patrick Blessing

Greg Allen Funston

Cheng-Shun Chen

Ping-Cheng Hsu

Wei Ching Huang

Eric E Kron

Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to an over-sculpted storage node are described. An example method includes forming an opening in a pattern of materials. The method further includes performing an etch to over-sculpt the opening. The method further includes depositing a storage node material in the over-sculpted opening to form an over-sculpted storage node. The method further includes performing an etch to remove portions of the pattern of materials. The method further includes performing an etch on the storage node material to trim the over-sculpted storage node.

Over-sculpted storage node

A DRAM capacitor may include a first capacitor electrode, a capacitor dielectric adjacent to the first capacitor electrode, and a second capacitor electrode adjacent to the capacitor dielectric. The first capacitor electrode may include a lower portion, an upper portion, and a step transition between the lower portion and the upper portion, a width of the upper portion of the first capacitor electrode at the step transition is less than a width of the lower portion of the first capacitor electrode at the step transition. Semiconductor devices, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

Capacitors with electrodes having a portion of material removed, and related semiconductor devices, systems, and methods

In an example, a wet cleaning process is performed to clean a structure having features and openings between the features while preventing drying of the structure. After performing the wet cleaning process, a polymer solution is deposited in the openings while continuing to prevent any drying of the structure. A sacrificial polymer material is formed in the openings from the polymer solution. The structure may be used in semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuits, memory devices, MEMS, among others.

Using sacrificial polymer materials in semiconductor processing

Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to semiconductor structure formation are described. An example method includes forming an opening through silicon (Si) material, formed over a semiconductor substrate, to a first depth to form pillars of Si material. The example method further includes depositing an isolation material within the opening to fill the opening between the Si pillars. The example method further includes removing a portion of the isolation material from between the pillars to a second depth to create a second opening between the pillars and defining inner sidewalls between the pillars. The example method further includes depositing an enhancer material over a top surface of the pillars and along the inner sidewalls of the pillars down to a top portion of the isolation material.

Semiconductor structure formation

Some embodiments include a method in which an assembly is formed to have a first silicon-dioxide-containing-material and a second silicon-dioxide-containing-material. The first silicon-dioxide-containing-material has a higher concentration of dopant therein than does the second silicon-dioxide-containing-material. The first silicon-dioxide-containing-material is selectively removed relative to the second silicon-dioxide-containing-material using a mixture which includes hydrofluoric acid, a second acid and an organic solvent. The organic solvent may include at least one ester and/or at least one ether. The second acid may have a pKa of less than about 5.

Methods for selectively removing more-doped-silicon-dioxide relative to less-doped-silicon-dioxide

An example method includes patterning a working surface of a semiconductor wafer. The example method includes performing a first deposition of a dielectric material in high aspect ratio trenches. The example method further includes performing a high pressure, high temperature vapor etch to recess the dielectric material in the trenches and performing a second deposition of the dielectric material to continue filling the trenches.

Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to semiconductor processing (e.g., of a capacitor support structure) are described. An example method includes patterning a surface of a semiconductor substrate to have a first silicate material, a nitride material over the first silicate material, and a second silicate material over the nitride material. The method further includes removing the first silicate material and the second silicate material and leaving the nitride material as a support structure for a column formed from a capacitor material. The method further includes performing supercritical drying on the column, after removal of the first and second silicate materials, to reduce a probability of the column wobbling relative to otherwise drying the column after the removal of the first and second silicate materials.

Semiconductor processing applying supercritical drying

Systems, apparatuses, and methods related to semiconductor structure formation are described. An example method may include patterning a working surface of a semiconductor wafer. The method may further include performing a vapor etch on a first dielectric material at the working surface to recess the first dielectric material to a first intended depth of an opening relative to the working surface and to expose a second dielectric material on a sidewall of the opening. The method may further include performing a wet etch on the second dielectric material to recess the second dielectric material to the intended depth.

Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to forming a capacitor column using a sacrificial material are described. An example method includes patterning a surface of a semiconductor substrate having: a first silicate material over the substrate, a first nitride material over the first silicate material, a sacrificial material over the first nitride material, a second silicate material over the sacrificial material, and a second nitride material over the second silicate material. The method further includes forming a column of capacitor material in an opening through the first silicate material, the first nitride material, the sacrificial material, the second silicate material, and the second nitride material. The method further includes removing the sacrificial material.

Column formation using sacrificial material

Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to removing a hard mask are described. An example method includes patterning a silicon hard mask on a semiconductor structure having a first silicate material on a working surface. The method further includes forming a first nitride material on the first silicate material. The method further includes forming a second silicate material on the first nitride material. The method further includes forming a second nitride material on the second silicate material. The method further includes an opening through the semiconductor structure using the patterned hard mask to form a pillar support. The method further includes forming a silicon liner material on the semiconductor structure. The method further includes removing the silicon liner material using a wet etch process.

Semiconductor structure patterning

Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to forming a capacitor using a hard mask material are described. An example method includes patterning a surface to have a first silicate material, a first nitride material on the first silicate material, a second silicate material on the first nitride material, a second nitride material on the second silicate material, and a sacrificial material on the second nitride material. The method further includes forming a hard mask material on the sacrificial material. The method further includes forming a capacitor material in an opening through the first silicate material, the first nitride material, the second silicate material, the second nitride material, the sacrificial material, and the hard mask material. The method further includes removing the sacrificial material and the hard mask material.

Formation of a capacitor using a hard mask

Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to forming a recess in a semiconductor structure are described. An example method includes etching the semiconductor structure using an elevated temperature dilution of acid and water. The method further includes etching the semiconductor structure using a room temperature wet etch of acid and water and a surface modification chemistry.

Semiconductor recess formation

Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to forming a capacitor using a sacrificial material are described. An example method includes forming a first silicate material on a substrate. The method further includes forming a first nitride material on the first silicate material. The method further includes forming a second silicate material on the first nitride material. The method further includes forming a second nitride material on the second silicate material. The method further includes forming a sacrificial material on the second nitride material. The method further includes forming a column of capacitor material through the first silicate material, the first nitride material, the second silicate material, the second nitride material, and the sacrificial material. The method further includes removing the sacrificial material to expose a top portion of the capacitor material.

Formation of a capacitor using a sacrificial layer

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Boise, ID, United States of America

Sanjeev Sapra