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:
May. 26, 2026
Filed:
Mar. 03, 2023
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Fredrick Fishburn, Aptos, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Provided are methods to reduce the thickness of a high-κ layer needed in a DRAM capacitor and, thus, allow the cell electrodes to be larger, giving higher cell capacitance. A tantalum nitride (TaN) layer is introduced as a liner in the capacitor hole before a titanium nitride (TiN) electrode layer. The TaN layer converts to a thin layer of tantalum oxide (TaO), which permits a reduction in the high-κ layer thickness for the same capacitance versus leakage. Because this TaOis formed directly on the cell electrode, it ensures a low leakage film exists in the narrowest gaps even before the high-κ layer is deposited.