Sandisk Technologies Inc.

Sung Tae Lee

Michiaki Sano

Akihiro Tobioka

Koichi Ito

Akira Nakada

Yoshinobu Tanaka

Hideaki Hasegawa

Johann Alsmeier

Hiroyuki Ogawa

Yao-Sheng Lee

Akio Nishida

Jixin Yu

Zhenyu Lu

Daxin Mao

Kensuke Yamaguchi

Syo Fukata

Manabu Hayashi

Takashi Matsubara

Motoki Kawasaki

Yusuke Osawa

Tetsuya Yamada

Naoto Umehara

An alternating stack of insulating layers and sacrificial material layers is formed over a substrate. Memory openings and support openings are formed through the alternating stack, and memory opening fill structures and support pillar structures are formed in the memory openings and in the support openings, respectively. Via cavities extending to each of the sacrificial material layers are formed through the alternating stack without forming any stepped surfaces in the alternating stack. The via cavities may be formed in areas that do not overlap with the support pillar structures, or in areas that include at least one support pillar structure. Sacrificial via fill structures are formed in the via cavies, and the sacrificial material layers are replaced with electrically conductive layers. The sacrificial via fill structures are removed, and a combination of a tubular dielectric spacer and a contact via structure can be formed in the via cavities.

Three-dimensional memory device including stairless word line contact structures for and method of making the same

A first material layer, a second material layer, and a photoresist layer may be formed over a substrate. The second material layer may be patterned by transfer of a lithographic pattern therethrough. A conformal spacer layer may be formed over the patterned second material layer in a chamber enclosure of an in-situ deposition-etch apparatus. Spacer films may be formed by anisotropically etching the conformal spacer layer in the chamber enclosure of the in-situ deposition-etch apparatus. The first material layer may be anisotropically etched using a combination of the patterned second material layer and the spacer films as an etch mask in the in-situ deposition-etch apparatus. A high fidelity pattern may be transferred into the first material layer with reduced line edge roughness, reduced line width roughness, and without enlargement of lateral dimensions of openings in the first material layer.

In-situ deposition and etch process and apparatus for precision patterning of semiconductor devices

Contacts to peripheral devices extending through multiple tier structures of a three-dimensional memory device can be formed with minimal additional processing steps. First peripheral via cavities through a first tier structure can be formed concurrently with formation of first memory openings. Sacrificial via fill structures can be formed in the first peripheral via cavities concurrently with formation of sacrificial memory opening fill structures that are formed in the first memory openings. Second peripheral via cavities through a second tier structure can be formed concurrently with formation of word line contact via cavities that extend to top surfaces of electrically conductive layers in the first and second tier structures. After removal of the sacrificial via fill structures, the first and second peripheral via cavities can be filled with a conductive material to form peripheral contact via structures concurrently with formation of word line contact via structures.

Multi-tier memory device with through-stack peripheral contact via structures and method of making thereof

A method is provided that includes forming a dielectric material above a substrate, forming a hole in the dielectric material, the hole disposed in a first direction, forming a word line layer above the substrate via the hole, the word line layer disposed in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, forming a nonvolatile memory material on a sidewall of the hole, forming a local bit line in the hole, and forming a memory cell including the nonvolatile memory material at an intersection of the local bit line and the word line layer.

Methods and apparatus for vertical bit line structures in three-dimensional nonvolatile memory

A contact via cavity can be filled with a lower structure and an upper structure. The lower structure can be a conductive structure that is formed by depositing a conformal conductive material, and subsequently removing an upper portion of the conformal conductive material. A disposable material portion can be formed at a bottom of the cavity to protect the bottom portion of the conformal conductive layer during removal of the upper portion. After removal of the disposable material, at least one conductive material can fill the remainder of the cavity to form the upper structure. The upper structure and the lower structure collectively constitute a contact via structure. Alternatively, the lower structure can be a dielectric spacer with an opening therethrough. The upper structure can be a conductive structure that extends through the dielectric spacer, and provides an electrically conductive vertical connection.

Composite contact via structure containing an upper portion which fills a cavity within a lower portion

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Yokkaichi, Japan

Sung Tae Lee