Globalfoundries Inc.

Stefan Duenkel

Ralf Richter

Sven Beyer

Ralf Illgen

Lars Mueller-Meskamp

Zhi-Yuan Wu

Jochen Willi Poth

Sandhya Chandrashekhar

Soeren Jansen

In semiconductor devices, high-k dielectric materials may be formed on the basis of engineered surface conditions, thereby contributing to superior uniformity of the resulting characteristics. In some illustrative embodiments, the dielectric material may be stabilized in a ferroelectric phase, wherein the previous surface modulation, which, in the illustrative embodiments may include the introduction of respective species, such as dopant species, thereby contributing to uniform ferroelectric characteristics. In some illustrative embodiments, the process strategy may be applied to a buried insulating layer of an SOI substrate.

Engineering of ferroelectric materials in semiconductor devices by surface potential modulation

In sophisticated SOI transistor elements, the buried insulating layer may be specifically engineered so as to include non-standard dielectric materials. For instance, a charge-trapping material and/or a high-k dielectric material and/or a ferroelectric material may be incorporated into the buried insulating layer. In this manner, non-volatile storage transistor elements with superior performance may be obtained and/or efficiency of a back-bias mechanism may be improved.

Transistor element including a buried insulating layer having enhanced functionality

The present disclosure provides storage elements, such as storage transistors, wherein at least one storage mechanism is provided on the basis of a ferroelectric material formed in the buried insulating layer of an SOI transistor architecture. In further illustrative embodiments, one further storage mechanism is implemented in the gate electrode structure, thereby providing increased overall information density. In some illustrative embodiments, the storage mechanism in the gate electrode structure is provided in the form of a ferroelectric material.

Non-volatile transistor element including a buried ferroelectric material based storage mechanism

In illustrative embodiments disclosed herein, a logic element may be provided on the basis of a non-volatile storage mechanism, such as ferroelectric transistor elements, wherein the functional behavior may be adjusted or programmed on the basis of a shift of threshold voltages. To this end, a P-type transistor element and an N-type transistor element may be connected in parallel, while a ferroelectric material may be used so as to establish a first polarization state resulting in a first functional behavior and a second polarization state resulting in a second different functional behavior. For example, the logic element may enable a switching between P-type transistor behavior and N-type transistor behavior depending on the polarization state.

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Dresden, Germany

Stefan Duenkel