Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Te-Jen Pan

Hsiang-Ku Shen

Yimin Huang

Yu-Hsien Lin

Tzu-Chung Wang

Wei-Han Fan

Yun Jing Lin

An integrated circuit device includes a gate stack disposed over a substrate. A first L-shaped spacer is disposed along a first sidewall of the gate stack and a second L-shaped spacer is disposed along a second sidewall of the gate stack. The first L-shaped spacer and the second L-shaped spacer include silicon and carbon. A first source/drain epitaxy region and a second source/drain epitaxy region are disposed over the substrate. The gate stack is disposed between the first source/drain epitaxy region and the second source/drain epitaxy region. An interlevel dielectric (ILD) layer disposed over the substrate. The ILD layer is disposed between the first source/drain epitaxy region and a portion of the first L-shaped spacer disposed along the first sidewall of the gate stack and between the second source/drain epitaxy region and a portion of the second L-shaped spacer disposed along the second sidewall of the gate stack.

Semiconductor device including an epitaxy region

An exemplary method includes forming a dummy gate structure over a substrate and forming a set of spacers adjacent to the dummy gate structure. The set of spacers includes spacer liners disposed on sidewalls of the dummy gate structure and main spacers disposed on the spacer liners. The spacer liners include silicon and carbon. The method further includes forming source/drain epitaxy regions over the substrate. The source/drain epitaxy regions are disposed adjacent to the set of spacers, such that the dummy gate structure is disposed between the source/drain epitaxy regions. The method further includes removing the main spacers after forming the source/drain epitaxy regions. The method further includes replacing the dummy gate structure with a gate structure, where the replacing includes removing the dummy gate structure to form a trench defined by the spacers liners, such that the gate structure is formed in the trench.

A method is described which includes providing a substrate and forming a first spacer material layer abutting a gate structure on the substrate. A second spacer material layer is formed adjacent and abutting the gate structure and overlying the first spacer material layer. The first spacer material layer and the second spacer material layer are then etched concurrently to form first and second spacers, respectively. An epitaxy region is formed (e.g., grown) on the substrate which includes an interface with each of the first and second spacers. The second spacer may be subsequently removed and the first spacer remain on the device decreases the aspect ratio for an ILD gap fill. An example composition of the first spacer is SiCN.

Growing community of inventors

Hsinchu, Taiwan

Te-Jen Pan