Abstract: A lateral DMOS-transistor is provided that includes a MOS-diode made of a semi-conductor material of a first type of conductivity, a source-area of a second type of conductivity and a drain-area of a second type of conductivity which is separated from the MOS-diode by a drift region made of a semi-conductor material of a second type of conductivity which is at least partially covered by a dielectric gate layer which also covers the semi-conductor material of the MOS-diode. The dielectric gate-layer comprises a first region of a first thickness and a second region of a second thickness. The first region covers the semi-conductor material of the MOS-diode and the second region is arranged on the drift region. A transition takes place from the first thickness to the second thickness such that an edge area of the drift region which is oriented towards the MOS-diode is arranged below the second area of the gate layer. The invention also relates to a method for the production of these types of DMOS-transistors.

Abstract: By aligning the primary flat of a wafer with a (100) plane rather than a (110) plane, devices can be formed with primary currents flowing along the (100) plane. In this case, the device will intersect the (111) plane at approximately 54.7 degrees. This intersect angle significantly reduces stress propagation/relief along the (111) direction and consequently reduces defects as well as leakage and parasitic currents. The leakage current reduction is a direct consequence of the change in the dislocation length required to short the source-drain junction. By using this technique the leakage current is reduced by up to two orders of magnitude for an N-channel CMOS device.

Abstract: A method of fabricating an electronic device and a resulting electronic device. The method includes forming a pad oxide layer on a substrate, forming a silicon nitride layer over the pad oxide layer, and forming a top oxide layer over the silicon nitride layer. A first dopant region is then formed in a first portion of the substrate. A first portion of the top oxide layer is removed; a remaining portion of the top oxide layer is used to align a second dopant mask and a second dopant region is formed. An annealing step drives-in the dopants but oxygen diffusion to the substrate is limited by the silicon nitride layer; the silicon nitride layer thereby assures that the uppermost surface of the silicon is substantially planar in an area proximate to the dopant regions after the annealing step.

Abstract: A first mark, in a double-well integrated circuit technology, is formed by a first etching of a first mask layer on top of an ONO stack. After a first well is doped, a second etching occurs at the first etching sites in the uppermost layer of oxide of the ONO stack forming a first alignment artifact. A second mask layer is applied after removing the first mask layer. A second well doping occurs at second mask layer etching sites to maintain clearance between the two wells within active areas and provide an overlap of the two wells in a frame area. At the first alignment artifact in the overlap of the two wells, further etchings remove remaining layers of the ONO stack and remove silicon from the upper most layer of the semiconductor forming a second registration mark, which may be covered by a protective layer.

Abstract: A MOS transistor, and a method for producing the same, is provided with a source region, a gate-region, a drain region, and a drift region in an SOI wafer. The SOI-wafer has a carrier layer, which carries an insulating intermediate layer, and whereby the insulating intermediate layer carries an active semiconductor layer, in which laterally different doping material concentrations define the source region, the drift region, and the drain region. Whereby, the active semiconductor layer, at least in a portion of the drift region, is thicker than in the source region. The MOS transistor is characterized in that the active semiconductor layer, in a vertical direction, is completely separated by the insulating intermediate layer from the carrier layer.

Abstract: A MOS transistor, and a method for producing the same, is provided with a source region, a gate-region, a drain region, and a drift region in an SOI wafer. The SOI-wafer has a carrier layer, which carries an insulating intermediate layer, and whereby the insulating intermediate layer carries an active semiconductor layer, in which laterally different doping material concentrations define the source region, the drift region, and the drain region. Whereby, the active semiconductor layer, at least in a portion of the drift region, is thicker than in the source region. The MOS transistor is characterized in that the active semiconductor layer, in a vertical direction, is completely separated by the insulating intermediate layer from the carrier layer.

Abstract: A first mark, in a double-well integrated circuit technology, is formed by a first etching of a first mask layer on top of an ONO stack. After a first well is doped, a second etching occurs at the first etching sites in the uppermost layer of oxide of the ONO stack forming a first alignment artifact. A second mask layer is applied after removing the first mask layer. A second well doping occurs at second mask layer etching sites to maintain clearance between the two wells within active areas and provide an overlap of the two wells in a frame area. At the first alignment artifact in the overlap of the two wells, further etchings remove remaining layers of the ONO stack and remove silicon from the upper most layer of the semiconductor forming a second registration mark, which may be covered by a protective layer.

Abstract: An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection structure is disclosed. The ESD protection structure comprises an active device. The active device includes a plurality of drains. Each of the drains has a contact row and at least one body contact row. The at least one body contact row is located on the active device in a manner to reduce the amount of voltage required for triggering the ESD protection structure. A system and method in accordance with the present invention utilizes a LDNMOS transistor as ESD protection element with optimised substrate contacts. The ratio of substrate contact rows to drain contact rows is smaller than one in order to reduce the triggering voltage of the inherent bipolar transistor.

Abstract: A method and system for fabricating a stacked capacitor and a DMOS transistor are disclosed. In one aspect, the method and system include providing a bottom plate, an insulator, and an additional layer including first and second plates. The insulator covers at least a portion of the bottom plate and resides between the first and second top plates and the bottom plate. The first and second top plates are electrically coupled through the bottom plate. In another aspect, the method and system include forming a gate oxide. The method and system also include providing SV well(s) after the gate oxide is provided. A portion of the SV well(s) resides under a field oxide region of the device. Each SV well includes first, second, and third implants having a sufficient energy to provide the portion of the SV well at a desired depth under the field oxide region without significant additional thermal processing. A gate, source, and drain are also provided.

Abstract: Vertically insulated active semiconductor regions having different thicknesses in an SOI wafer, which has an insulating layer, is produced. On the wafer, first active semiconductor regions having a first thickness are arranged in a layer of active semiconductor material. The second active semiconductor regions having a relatively smaller thickness are produced by epitaxial growth proceeding from at least one seed opening in a trench structure. The second semiconductor regions are substantially completely dielectrically insulated, laterally and vertically, from the first semiconductor regions by oxide layers. The width of the seed opening can be defined by lithography.

Abstract: A first mark, in a double-well integrated circuit technology, is formed by a first etching of a first mask layer on top of an ONO stack. After a first well is doped, a second etching occurs at the first etching sites in the uppermost layer of oxide of the ONO stack forming a first alignment artifact. A second mask layer is applied after removing the first mask layer. A second well doping occurs at second mask layer etching sites to maintain clearance between the two wells within active areas and provide an overlap of the two wells in a frame area. At the first alignment artifact in the overlap of the two wells, further etchings remove remaining layers of the ONO stack and remove silicon from the upper most layer of the semiconductor forming a second registration mark, which may be covered by a protective layer.

Abstract: A method of fabricating an electronic device and the resulting electronic device. The method includes forming a gate oxide on an uppermost side of a silicon-on-insulator substrate; forming a first polysilicon layer over the gate oxide; and forming a first silicon dioxide layer over the first polysilicon layer. A first silicon nitride layer is then formed over the first silicon dioxide layer followed by a second silicon dioxide layer. Shallow trenches are etched through all preceding dielectric layers and into the SOI substrate. The etched trenches are filled with another dielectric layer (e.g., silicon dioxide) and planarized. Each of the preceding dielectric layers are removed, leaving an uppermost sidewall area of the dielectric layer exposed for contact with a later-applied polysilicon gate area. Formation of the sidewall area assures a full-field oxide thickness thereby producing a device with a reduced-electric field and a reduced capacitance between gate and drift regions.

Abstract: An integrated circuit is disclosed that includes a component region with at least one NDMOS transistor and at least one PDMOS transistor and a substrate, which is isolated from the component region by a dielectric, whereby the component region, dielectric, and substrate form a first substrate capacitance standardized to a unit area in a first region of the PDMOS transistor and a second substrate capacitance standardized to said unit area in a second region of the NDMOS transistor, and whereby the first substrate capacitance standardized to said unit area is reduced in comparison to the second substrate capacitance standardized to said unit area.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a metal-semiconductor contact in semiconductor Components is disclosed. There is a relatively high risk of contamination in the course of metal depositions in prior-art methods. In the disclosed method, the actual metal-semiconductor or Schottky contact is produced only after the application of a protective layer system, as a result of which it is possible to use any metals, particularly platinum, without the risk of contamination.

Abstract: A semiconductor element such as a DMOS-transistor is fabricated in a semiconductor substrate. Wells of opposite conductivity are formed by implanting and then thermally diffusing respective well dopants into preferably spaced-apart areas in the substrate. At least one trench and active regions are formed in the substrate. The trench may be a shallow drift zone trench of a DMOS-transistor, and/or a deep isolation trench. The thermal diffusion of the well dopants includes at least one first diffusion step during a first high temperature drive before forming the trench, and at least one second diffusion step during a second high temperature drive after forming the trench. Dividing the thermal diffusion steps before and after the trench formation achieves an advantageous balance between reducing or avoiding lateral overlapping diffusion of neighboring wells and reducing or avoiding thermally induced defects along the trench boundaries.

Abstract: An integrated circuit is disclosed that includes a first layer made of active semiconductor material and extending along a first side of a buried layer, and trench structures, which cut through the layer made of active semiconductor material and have dielectric wall regions, whereby the dielectric wall regions isolate electrically subregions of the layer, made of active semiconductor material in the lateral direction, and whereby the trench structures, furthermore, have first inner regions, which are filled with electrically conductive material and contact the buried layer in an electrically conductive manner. The integrated circuit is notable in that the first wall regions of the trench structures completely cut through the buried layer and the second wall regions of the trench structures extend into the buried layer, without cutting it completely. Furthermore, a method for manufacturing such an integrated circuit is disclosed.

Abstract: A bipolar transistor and a method for manufacturing the bipolar transistor is disclosed. The bipolar transistor is formed by the steps of: doping of a surface region of a substrate with a first doping to form an active emitter region; formation of at least one cavity in the substrate; application of a dielectric isolation layer to the surface of the at least one cavity in the substrate; formation of a contiguous base region with a second doping both in the at least one cavity to provide a base connection region, electrically isolated from the substrate by the dielectric isolation layer, and also at least partially on the formed active emitter region to provide a base region electrically connected to the substrate; and formation of a collector region with a third doping at least on the formed base region to provide a collector electrically connected to the formed base region.

Abstract: An ESD protection circuit includes semiconductor structures as basic elements whose electrical conductivity changes in a breakdown or avalanche manner in the presence of an applied voltage which exceeds a threshold value. The ESD protection circuit has a matrix of basic elements in which a desired current capacity can be set by specifying a number of basic elements in each row, and a desired voltage capacity can be set by specifying a number of rows.

Abstract: To form a semiconductor component having active regions separated from one another by trenches as isolation structures, a method involves forming a shallow trench in a semiconductor body, thereafter forming a deep trench within the shallow trench in the semiconductor body, and thereafter completely driving dopant atoms into the semiconductor body to form a well region doped with the dopant. The dopant may be previously introduced by implantation into a surface layer, and then the dopant is finally completely driven into the well region by thermally supported diffusion after forming the deep trench. The shallow and deep trenches together form a compound trench with stepped side walls. Two oppositely doped wells may be formed on opposite sides of the compound trench, which thus isolates the two wells from one another. Active regions may be formed in the two wells.

Abstract: A DMOS-transistor has a trench bordered by a drift region including two doped wall regions and a doped floor region extending along the walls and the floor of the trench. The laterally extending floor region has a dopant concentration gradient in the lateral direction. For example, the floor region includes at least two differently-doped floor portions successively in the lateral direction. This dopant gradient in the floor region is formed by carrying out at least one dopant implantation from above through the trench using at least one mask to expose a first area while covering a second area of the floor region.