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:
Oct. 22, 2002
Filed:
May. 09, 2000
Werner Juengling, Boise, ID (US);
Kirk Prall, Boise, ID (US);
Gordon Haller, Boise, ID (US);
David Keller, Boise, ID (US);
Tyler Lowrey, Boise, ID (US);
Micron Technolgy, Inc., Boise, ID (US);
Abstract
Within an integrated circuit, a contact plug with a height not extending above the level of the gate/wordline nitride is nonetheless provided with a relatively large contact area or landing pad, significantly larger than the source/drain region to which the contact plug is electrically connected. Methods for producing the inventive contact plug include (1) use of a nitride facet etch, either (a) during a nitride spacer formation etch or (b) during a BPSG etch; (2) using at least one of (a) an isotropic photoresist etch or partial descum to narrow BPSG spacers above the gate/wordline nitride, and (b) a nitride step etch to etch the shoulder area of the gate/wordline nitride exposed by a BPSG etch; and (3) polishing a BPSG layer down to the top of a gate/wordline nitride before any doped polysilicon plug fill, masking for BPSG etch and performing a BPSG etch, etching the photoresist layer through a partial descum, and etching the shoulder area of the gate/wordline nitride exposed thereby.