International Business Machines Corporation

Yi Song

Kangguo Cheng

Juntao Li

Zhenxing Bi

Ekmini Anuja De Silva

Jay William Strane

Chi-Chun Liu

Peng Xu

Veeraraghavan S Baskar

Fee Li Lie

Andrew Mark Greene

Eric R Miller

Richard Anthony Conti

Huimei Zhou

Praveen Joseph

Liying Jiang

Lijuan Zou

Ruilong Xie

Chih-Chao Yang

Junli Wang

Chen Zhang

Xin Miao

Shogo Mochizuki

Michael Rizzolo

Muthumanickam Sankarapandian

Yongan Xu

Robin Hsin Kuo Chao

Ardasheir Rahman

Terry Hook

A nanosheet device is provided that has high quality epitaxially grown source/drain regions and reduced parasitic capacitance which are afforded by forming an air gap between an epitaxially grown source/drain region and a semiconductor substrate. The isolation provided by the air gap does not need to extend beneath the channel region of the nanosheet device.

Nanosheet device with air-gaped source/drain regions

A semiconductor structure comprises a plurality of gate structures alternately stacked with a plurality of channel layers, and a plurality of spacers disposed on lateral sides of the plurality of gate structures. The respective ones of the plurality of spacers comprise a profile having a first portion comprising a first shape and a second portion comprising a second shape, wherein the first shape is different from the second shape.

Inner spacer formation for nanosheet transistors

Embodiments of the invention are directed to a semiconductor device structure that includes a first channel region over a substrate, a second channel region over the first channel region, and a merged source or drain (S/D) region over the substrate and adjacent to the first channel region and the second channel region. The merged S/D region is communicatively coupled to the first channel region and the second channel region. A wrap-around S/D contact is configured such that it is on a top surface, sidewalls, and a bottom surface of the merged S/D region.

Transistor having wrap-around source/drain contacts and under-contact spacers

Semiconductor devices and methods of forming the same include forming slanted dielectric structures from a first dielectric material on a substrate, with gaps between adjacent slanted dielectric structures. A first semiconductor layer is grown from the substrate, using a first semiconductor material, including a lower portion that fills the gaps and an upper portion above the first dielectric material. The lower portion of the first semiconductor layer is replaced with additional dielectric material.

Nanosheet transistor bottom isolation

A method of forming a semiconductor device is provided that includes forming a first source/drain region in a supporting substrate abutting a fin structure; and forming an isolation region in the supporting substrate adjacent to a first side of the fin structure, wherein the first source/drain region is positioned on an opposing second side of the fin structure. A gate structure is formed on the channel region portion of the fin structure. In a following step, a second source/drain region on an upper surface of the fin structure. Contacts can be formed aligned to the first source/drain region and the gate structure.

Vertical field effect transistors with self aligned contacts

Embodiments of the invention are directed to a method of forming a semiconductor device. In a non-limiting example, the method includes forming a first channel region over a substrate, forming a second channel region over the first channel region, and forming a merged source or drain (S/D) region over the substrate and adjacent to the first channel region and the second channel region. The merged S/D region is communicatively coupled to the first channel region and the second channel region. A wrap-around S/D contact is formed such that it is on a top surface, sidewalls, and a bottom surface of the merged S/D region.

A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming a fin over a substrate, forming a bottom source/drain over the substrate surrounding a first portion of sidewalls of the fin, and forming a bottom spacer over the bottom source/drain and surrounding a second portion of the sidewalls of the fin. The method also includes forming a T-shaped gate stack over the bottom spacer and surrounding a third portion of the sidewalls of the fin, forming a top spacer over the T-shaped gate stack and surrounding a fourth portion of the sidewalls of the fin, and forming a top source/drain over the top spacer and surrounding a fifth portion of the sidewalls and a top surface of the fin. The T-shaped gate stack includes a gate dielectric, a gate conductor, and a gate metal extending outward from a portion of sidewalls of the gate conductor between the bottom and top spacers.

Vertical field-effect transistor with T-shaped gate

A finned semiconductor structure including sets of relatively wide and relatively narrow fins is obtained by employing hard masks having different quality. A relatively porous hard mask is formed over a first region of a semiconductor substrate and a relatively dense hard mask is formed over a second region of the substrate. Patterning of the different hard masks using a sidewall image transfer process causes greater lateral etching of the relatively porous hard mask than the relatively dense hard mask. A subsequent reactive ion etch to form semiconductor fins causes relatively narrow fins to be formed beneath the relatively porous hard mask and relatively wide fins to be formed beneath the relatively dense hard mask.

Dual width finned semiconductor structure

A method for fabricating an electronic fuse includes forming a recess within a film material to define opposed contact segments and a central fuse segment interconnecting the contact segments and altering the material of the central fuse segment of the film material to increase electrical resistance characteristics of the central fuse segment. The central fuse segment may include defects such as voids created by directing a laser at the central fuse segment as a component of a laser annealing process. Alternatively, and or additionally, the central fuse segment may include dopants implementing via an ion implantation process to increase resistance characteristics of the central fuse segment.

Fuse element resistance enhancement by laser anneal and ion implantation

Semiconductor devices and methods are provided to fabricate fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) devices having uniform fin height profiles. For example, uniformity of fin height profiles for FinFET devices is obtained by implementing a gate oxide removal process which is designed to prevent etching of an isolation layer (e.g., a shallow trench isolation layer) formed of an oxide material during removal of, e.g., sacrificial gate oxide layers of dummy gate structures during a replacement metal gate process.

Controlling active fin height of FinFET device

A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming a nanosheet stack over a substrate, the nanosheet stack including alternating sacrificial and channel layers, the channel layers providing nanosheet channels for nanosheet field-effect transistors. The method also includes forming vertical fins in the nanosheet stack and a portion of the substrate, and forming indents in sidewalls of the sacrificial layers at sidewalls of the vertical fins. The method further includes forming nanosheet extension regions in portions of the channel layers which extend from the indented sidewalls of the sacrificial layers to the sidewalls of the vertical fins, the nanosheet extension regions increasing in thickness from the indented sidewalls of the sacrificial layers to the sidewalls of the vertical fins. The method further includes forming inner spacers using a conformal deposition process that forms air gaps in spaces between the nanosheet extension regions and the indented sidewalls of the sacrificial layers.

Source/drain extension regions and air spacers for nanosheet field-effect transistor structures

A method and structure of forming air gaps with a sidewall image transfer process such as self-aligned double patterning to reduce capacitances. Different materials can be provided in the mandrel and non-mandrel regions to enlarge a process window for metal line end formation.

Airgap formation in BEOL interconnect structure using sidewall image transfer

Devices and methods are provided for fabricating field-effect transistors having source/drain extension contacts to provide reduced parasitic resistance in electrical paths between source/drain layers and active channel layers surrounded by gate structures of the field-effect transistor devices. For example, in a nanosheet field-effect transistor device having embedded gate sidewall spacers which are disposed between end portions of active nanosheet channel layers and serve to insulate source/drain layers from a metal gate structure, epitaxial source/drain extension contacts are disposed between the embedded gate sidewall spacers and active nanosheet channel layers, and on sidewall surfaces of the active nanosheet channel layers. Epitaxial source/drain layers are grown starting on exposed surfaces of the epitaxial source/drain extension contacts. The epitaxial source/drain extension contacts laterally extend from epitaxial source/drain layers to a high-k dielectric/metal gate structure that surrounds the active nanosheet channel layers.

Gate-all-around field-effect transistor devices having source/drain extension contacts to channel layers for reduced parasitic resistance

Semiconductor devices and methods of forming the same include forming a doped drain structure having a first conductivity type on sidewalls of an intrinsic channel layer. An opening is etched in a middle of the channel layer. A doped source structure is formed having a second conductivity type in the opening of the channel layer.

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Albany, NY, United States of America

Yi Song