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:
Dec. 27, 2016
Filed:
Oct. 16, 2014
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Udayan Ganguly, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Yoshitaka Yokota, San Jose, CA (US);
Jing Tang, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Sunderraj Thirupapuliyur, San Jose, CA (US);
Christopher Sean Olsen, Fremont, CA (US);
Shiyu Sun, San Jose, CA (US);
Tze Wing Poon, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Wei Liu, San Jose, CA (US);
Johanes Swenberg, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Vicky U. Nguyen, San Jose, CA (US);
Swaminathar Srinivasan, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Jacob Newman, Palo Alto, CA (US);
APPLIED MATERIALS, INC., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Semiconductor devices suitable for narrow pitch applications and methods of fabrication thereof are described herein. In some embodiments, a semiconductor device may include a floating gate having a first width proximate a base of the floating gate that is greater than a second width proximate a top of the floating gate. In some embodiments, a method of shaping a material layer may include (a) oxidizing a surface of a material layer to form an oxide layer at an initial rate; (b) terminating formation of the oxide layer when the oxidation rate is about 90% or below of the initial rate; (c) removing at least some of the oxide layer by an etching process; and (d) repeating (a) through (c) until the material layer is formed to a desired shape. In some embodiments, the material layer may be a floating gate of a semiconductor device.