Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Industrial Technology Research Institute

Shih-Che Lin

Mei-Yun Wang

Po-Yu Huang

Chao-Hsun Wang

Kuo-Yi Chao

Fu-Kai Yang

Feng-Yu Chang

Chen-Ming Lee

Chen-Yuan Kao

I-Wen Wu

Rueijer Lin

Kai-Hsuan Lee

Shih-Chieh Wu

Wei-Jung Lin

Chia-Ming Chang

Hung-Chih Yu

Ching-Kun Huang

Chia-Hsien Yao

Chao-Jui Wang

Jia-En Lee

Sheng-Tang Wang

Tzu-Yang Ho

Liang-Chia Cheng

Chao-Hong Chen

Yung-Chieh Lin

A semiconductor structure includes a substrate, nanostructures over the substrate, and a gate structure wrapping around the nanostructures. The gate structure includes a gate dielectric layer and a gate electrode wrapping around the gate dielectric layer. The semiconductor structure further includes a source/drain feature in contact with the nanostructures, a contact etch stop layer over the source/drain feature, and a seal layer over the air spacer and the gate structure, and on a sidewall of the contact etch stop layer. The contact etch stop layer is separated from the gate structure by an air spacer.

Semiconductor structure and method for manufacturing the same

Semiconductor structures and methods are provided. An exemplary method according to the present disclosure includes receiving a fin-shaped structure comprising a first channel region and a second channel region, a first and a second dummy gate structures disposed over the first and the second channel regions, respectively. The method also includes removing a portion of the first dummy gate structure, a portion of the first channel region and a portion of the substrate under the first dummy gate structure to form a trench, forming a hybrid dielectric feature in the trench, removing a portion of the hybrid dielectric feature to form an air gap, sealing the air gap, and replacing the second dummy gate structure with a gate stack after sealing the air gap.

Isolation structures

A semiconductor device structure includes nanostructures formed over a substrate. The structure also includes a gate structure formed over and around the nanostructures. The structure also includes a spacer layer formed over a sidewall of the gate structure over the nanostructures. The structure also includes a source/drain epitaxial structure formed adjacent to the spacer layer. The structure also includes a contact structure formed over the source/drain epitaxial structure with an air spacer formed between the spacer layer and the contact structure.

Semiconductor device structure and method for forming the same

Vias, along with methods for fabricating vias, are disclosed that exhibit reduced capacitance and resistance. An exemplary interconnect structure includes a first source/drain contact and a second source/drain contact disposed in a dielectric layer. The first source/drain contact physically contacts a first source/drain feature and the second source/drain contact physically contacts a second source/drain feature. A first via having a first via layer configuration, a second via having a second via layer configuration, and a third via having a third via layer configuration are disposed in the dielectric layer. The first via and the second via extend into and physically contact the first source/drain contact and the second source/drain contact, respectively. A first thickness of the first via and a second thickness of the second via are the same. The third via physically contacts a gate structure, which is disposed between the first source/drain contact and the second source/drain contact.

Different via configurations for different via interface requirements

An interconnect fabrication method is disclosed herein that utilizes a disposable etch stop hard mask over a gate structure during source/drain contact formation and replaces the disposable etch stop hard mask with a dielectric feature (in some embodiments, dielectric layers having a lower dielectric constant than a dielectric constant of dielectric layers of the disposable etch stop hard mask) before gate contact formation. An exemplary device includes a contact etch stop layer (CESL) having a first sidewall CESL portion and a second sidewall CESL portion separated by a spacing and a dielectric feature disposed over a gate structure, where the dielectric feature and the gate structure fill the spacing between the first sidewall CESL portion and the second sidewall CESL portion. The dielectric feature includes a bulk dielectric over a dielectric liner. The dielectric liner separates the bulk dielectric from the gate structure and the CESL.

Dielectric structures for semiconductor device structures

A semiconductor device structure, along with methods of forming such, are described. The semiconductor device structure includes a gate electrode layer disposed over a substrate, a source/drain epitaxial feature disposed over the substrate, a first hard mask layer disposed over the gate electrode layer, and a contact etch stop layer (CESL) disposed over the source/drain epitaxial feature. The structure further includes a first interlayer dielectric (ILD) layer disposed on the CESL and a first treated portion of a second hard mask layer disposed on the CESL and the first ILD layer. A top surface of the first hard mask layer and a top surface of the first treated portion of the second mask layer are substantially coplanar. The structure further includes an etch stop layer disposed on the first hard mask layer and the first treated portion of the second mask layer.

Semiconductor device structure and methods of forming the same

A semiconductor device structure is provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a source/drain region formed in a semiconductor substrate, a source/drain contact structure formed over the source/drain region, and a gate electrode layer formed adjacent to the source/drain contact structure. The semiconductor device structure also includes a first spacer and a second spacer laterally and successively arranged from the sidewall of the gate electrode layer to the sidewall of the source/drain contact structure. The semiconductor device structure further includes a silicide region formed in the source/drain region. The top width of the silicide region is greater than the bottom width of the source/drain contact structure and less than the top width of the source/drain region.

Contact structure with silicide and method for forming the same

A method and structure for forming a semiconductor device includes etching back a source/drain contact to define a substrate topography including a trench disposed between adjacent hard mask layers. A contact etch stop layer (CESL) is deposited along sidewall and bottom surfaces of the trench, and over the adjacent hard mask layers, to provide the CESL having a snake-like pattern disposed over the substrate topography. A contact via opening is formed in a dielectric layer disposed over the CESL, where the contact via opening exposes a portion of the CESL within the trench. The portion of the CESL exposed by the contact via opening is etched to form an enlarged contact via opening and expose the etched back source/drain contact. A metal layer is deposited within the enlarged contact via opening to provide a contact via in contact with the exposed etched back source/drain contact.

Contact formation method and related structure

Methods to form vertically conducting and laterally conducting low-cost resistor structures utilizing dual-resistivity conductive materials are provided. The dual-resistivity conductive materials are deposited in openings in a dielectric layer using a single deposition process step. A high-resistivity β-phase of tungsten is stabilized by pre-treating portions of the dielectric material with impurities. The portions of the dielectric material in which impurities are incorporated encompass regions laterally adjacent to where high-resistivity β-W is desired. During a subsequent tungsten deposition step the impurities may out-diffuse and get incorporated in the tungsten, thereby stabilizing the metal in the high-resistivity β-W phase. The β-W converts to a low-resistivity α-phase of tungsten in the regions not pre-treated with impurities.

Conductive features having varying resistance

Vertical interconnect structures and methods of forming are provided. The vertical interconnect structures may be formed by partially filling a first opening through one or more dielectric layers with layers of conductive materials. A second opening is formed in a dielectric layer such that a depth of the first opening after partially filling with the layers of conductive materials is close to a depth of the second opening. The remaining portion of the first opening and the second opening may then be simultaneously filled.

Vertical interconnect features and methods of forming

A source/drain is disposed over a substrate. A source/drain contact is disposed over the source/drain. A first via is disposed over the source/drain contact. The first via has a laterally-protruding bottom portion and a top portion that is disposed over the laterally-protruding bottom portion.

Source/drain via having reduced resistance

Methods to form vertically conducting and laterally conducting low-cost resistor structures utilizing dual-resistivity conductive materials are provided. The dual-resistivity conductive materials are deposited in openings in a dielectric layer using a single deposition process step. A high-resistivity &#x3b2;-phase of tungsten is stabilized by pre-treating portions of the dielectric material with impurities. The portions of the dielectric material in which impurities are incorporated encompass regions laterally adjacent to where high-resistivity &#x3b2;-W is desired. During a subsequent tungsten deposition step the impurities may out-diffuse and get incorporated in the tungsten, thereby stabilizing the metal in the high-resistivity &#x3b2;-W phase. The &#x3b2;-W converts to a low-resistivity &#x3b1;-phase of tungsten in the regions not pre-treated with impurities.

A method and structure for forming semiconductor device includes forming a contact via opening in a first dielectric layer, where the contact via opening exposes a first portion of a contact etch stop layer (CESL). The method further includes etching both the first portion of the CESL exposed by the contact via opening and adjacent lateral portions of the CESL to expose a source/drain contact and form an enlarged contact via opening having cavities disposed on either side of a bottom portion of the enlarged contact via opening. The method further includes forming a passivation layer on sidewall surfaces of the enlarged contact via opening including on sidewall surfaces of the cavities. The method further includes depositing a first metal layer within the enlarged contact via opening and within the cavities to provide a contact via in contact with the exposed source/drain contact.

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Toufen, Taiwan

Shih-Che Lin