The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 29, 2020
Filed:
Feb. 06, 2019
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Vinod Robert Purayath, Los Gatos, CA (US);
APPLIED MATERIALS, INC., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for forming a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells are provided herein. The method includes depositing in a stack of alternating insulator layers and memory cell layers a layer of silicon oxide, a layer of silicon nitride, and a layer of amorphous silicon; removing the layer of amorphous silicon while maintaining the layer of amorphous silicon in a recess of the memory cells; selectively oxidizing the layer of amorphous silicon and the layer of silicon nitride to remove the layer of amorphous silicon from the recess and the layer of silicon nitride from the insulator layers; and removing oxidizing material from the recess and the insulator layers such that the layer of silicon nitride remains only in the recess of each memory cell of the memory cell layers and the layer of silicon oxide remains on both the insulator layers and the memory cell layers.