Patents Examined by Ginette Peralta
  • Patent number: 6218298
    Abstract: A satisfactory conductive fill of a vertical trench of aspect ratio of at least 20 to 1 in a silicon substrate is obtained by heating the substrate to a temperature of about 375° C. or less in a chamber for chemical vapor deposition along with a mixture of WF6, H2, and SiH4 for filling the trench with tungsten. Also, W(CO)6 may be substituted for the WF6.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2001
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies North America Corp.
    Inventor: Mark D. Hoinkis
  • Patent number: 6214702
    Abstract: Methods of forming semiconductor substrates include the steps of bonding a first semiconductor substrate to a second semiconductor substrate. The first semiconductor substrate has a first adhesion layer thereon extending opposite a first surface thereof and a first diffusion barrier layer extending between the first adhesion layer and the first surface. The second semiconductor substrate has a second adhesion layer thereon. The first diffusion barrier layer prevents impurities from within the first adhesion layer from diffusing directly into the first semiconductor substrate during subsequent thermal treatment steps (e.g., annealing). A second diffusion barrier layer is then formed to encapsulate the bonded wafers and the adhesion layers and diffusion barrier layer therebetween. The second diffusion barrier layer prevents impurities from within the adhesion layers from out-diffusing (from the lateral edges of the adhesion layers) during the subsequent thermal treatment steps (e.g., annealing steps).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2001
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yun-Gi Kim
  • Patent number: 6211561
    Abstract: An interconnect structure and fabrication method are provided to form air gaps between interconnect lines and between interconnect layers. A conductive material is deposited and patterned to form a first level of interconnect lines. A first dielectric layer is deposited over the first level of interconnect lines. One or more air gaps are formed in the first dielectric layer to reduce inter-layer capacitance, intra-layer capacitance or both inter-layer and intra-layer capacitance. At least one support pillar remains in the first dielectric layer to promote mechanical strength and thermal conductivity. A sealing layer is deposited over the first insulative layer to seal the air gaps. Via holes are patterned and etched through the sealing layer and the first dielectric layer. A conductive material is deposited to fill the via holes and form conductive plugs therein. Thereafter, a conductive material is deposited and patterned to form a second level of interconnect lines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2001
    Assignee: Conexant Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Bin Zhao
  • Patent number: 6207985
    Abstract: A dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cell and associated array are disclosed. In a first embodiment, the DRAM (300) includes a storage capacitor (308) and a pass transistor (306). The pass transistor (306) is formed within a silicon mesa (314), and includes a source region (320), a drain region (322), and a channel region (324) that extends in a length direction between the source region (320) and drain region (322). When viewed with respect to a width direction, the channel region (324) has a narrower width than that of the source region (320) and drain region (322). Further, the channel region (324) has a top surface and opposing side surfaces. A surrounding gate (318) is disposed around the channel region (324), adjacent to the top and side surfaces, and separated therefrom by a gate insulating layer (316).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2001
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventor: Darryl Walker
  • Patent number: 6204152
    Abstract: A process for heat-treating a single crystal silicon wafer to influence the precipitation behavior of oxygen in the wafer in a subsequent thermal processing step. The wafer has a front surface, a back surface, a central plane between the front and back surfaces, and a sink for crystal lattice vacancies at the front surface. In the process, the wafer is subjected to a heat-treatment to form crystal lattice vacancies, the vacancies being formed in the bulk of the silicon. The wafer is then cooled from the temperature of said heat treatment at a rate which allows some, but not all, of the crystal lattice vacancies to diffuse to the crystal lattice vacancy sink to produce a wafer having a vacancy concentration profile in which the peak density is at or near the central plane with the concentration generally decreasing in the direction of the front surface of the wafer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2001
    Assignee: MEMC Electronic Materials, SpA
    Inventors: Robert Falster, Marco Cornara, Daniela Gambaro, Massimiliano Olmo
  • Patent number: 6197110
    Abstract: A liquid phase deposition method of mass producing substantially uniform silicon dioxide films on wafers by forming wafer sets from at least four wafers. The wafer sets are placed in a slotted polytetrafluroethylene polymer boat wherein a proper and short distance between the front surface of a wafer and another surface is created. Finally, a substantially uniform silicon dioxide film is deposited on the wafer surfaces by contacting the wafer sets with an aqueous supersaturated silicon dioxide solution comprising a mixture of hydrofluosilicic acid and boric acid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2001
    Assignee: National Science Counsel
    Inventors: Ming-Kwei Lee, Bo-Hsiung Lei
  • Patent number: 6198142
    Abstract: A novel MOS transistor having minimal junction capacitance in this method of fabrication. According to the present invention, a gate dielectric layer is formed on a first surface of the semiconductor substrate. A gate electrode is then formed on the gate dielectric layer. Next, a pair of recesses are formed in the semiconductor substrate on opposite sides of the gate electrode. A dielectric layer is then formed on the surface of each of the recesses. A Semiconductor material is then deposited into the recesses to form a pair of source/drain regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2001
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Robert S. Chau, Chia-Hong Jan, Paul Packan, Mitchell C. Taylor
  • Patent number: 6197702
    Abstract: With a view to preventing the oxidation of a metal film at the time of light oxidation treatment after gate patterning and at the same time to making it possible to control the reproducibility of oxide film formation and homogeneity of oxide film thickness at gate side-wall end portions, in a gate processing step using a poly-metal, a gate electrode is formed by patterning a gate electrode material which has been deposited over a semiconductor wafer 1A having a gate oxide film formed thereon and has a poly-metal structure and then, the principal surface of the semiconductor wafer 1A heated to a predetermined temperature or vicinity thereof is supplied with a hydrogen gas which contains water at a low concentration, the water having been formed from hydrogen and oxygen by a catalytic action, to selectively oxidize the principal surface of the semiconductor wafer 1A, whereby the profile of the side-wall end portions of the gate electrode is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2001
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshikazu Tanabe, Isamu Asano, Makoto Yoshida, Naoki Yamamoto, Masayoshi Saito, Nobuyoshi Natsuaki
  • Patent number: 6191029
    Abstract: A damascene process is described. An opening is formed in a dielectric layer. The opening is filled with a conductive plug. The conductive plug is etched back to substantially reduce the thickness of the conductive plug in the dielectric layer. A conformal top barrier layer is formed over the conductive plug.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2001
    Assignees: United Silicon Incorporated, United Microelectronics Corp.
    Inventors: Hsi-Mao Hsiao, Chun-Lung Chen, Shin-Fa Lin
  • Patent number: 6191017
    Abstract: A method of forming a multi-layered dual-polysilicon structure that forms a polysilicon gate prior to formation of an ion implantation barrier and that requires fewer steps, is more economical, and permits fabrication of more compact semiconductor circuits and devices than prior art methods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2001
    Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Sailesh Chittipeddi, Michael J. Kelly
  • Patent number: 6188098
    Abstract: A semiconductor device has a device isolation oxide film, an interlayer insulating film, hydrogen barrier films, a lower electrode, a capacitor insulating film, an upper electrode, an interlayer insulating film and a wiring layer, formed on a silicon substrate. A gate electrode is formed on a gate oxide film between impurity diffusion regions in the silicon substrate. Further, a capacitor portion, comprising the lower electrode, the capacitor insulating film (ferroelectric or high dielectric substance) and the upper electrode, is completely covered with the hydrogen barrier films. The hydrogen barrier films prevent deterioration of the ferroelectric substance and the high dielectric constant material due to reducing conditions in a hydrogen atmosphere. Other device characteristics, however, are not adversely affected because only the capacitor portion is completely covered with the hydrogen barrier films.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2001
    Assignees: Symetrix Corporation, NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Kazushi Amanuma
  • Patent number: 6187088
    Abstract: A pulse laser beam having a rectangular irradiation region is irradiated on the same point in a non-single crystal semiconductor film multiple times. The pulse laser beam has an energy profile in a longitudinal direction in the beam irradiation region as follows: (a) there are the first region having an energy density of Ea or higher and the second regions on both sides of the first region having an energy density of less than Ea, and (b) an energy density slope has an absolute value of 20 to 300 J/cm3 in a boundary region extending to 1 &mgr;m from the boundary line between the first and the second regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2001
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroshi Okumura
  • Patent number: 6177349
    Abstract: The formation and/or growth of dendrites emanating from Cu or Cu alloy lines into a bordering open dielectric field are prevented or substantially reduced by chemically removing a portion of the surface from the dielectric field and from between the lines after CMP by immersion in and/or double sided brush scrubbing with a chemical agent. Embodiments include removing controlled portions up to 50 Å of silicon oxide by immersion in and/or double sided brush scrubbing with a solution containing ammonium fluoride, diammonium hydrogen citrate, triammonium citrate, a surfactant and dionized water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2001
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Diana M. Schonauer, Steven C. Avanzino, Kai Yang
  • Patent number: 6177698
    Abstract: A method for controlling isolation layer thickness in trenches for semiconductor devices includes the steps of providing a trench having a conductive material formed therein, forming a liner on sidewalls of the trench above the conductive material, depositing a selective oxide deposition layer on the buried strap and the sidewalls, the selective oxide deposition layer selectively growing at an increased rate on the conductive material than on the liner of the sidewalls and top surface and removing the selective oxide deposition layer except for a portion in contact with the conductive to form an isolation layer on the conductive material in the trench. A method for fabricating vertical transistors by recessing a substrate to permit increased overlap between a transistor channel and buried strap outdiffusion when the transistor is formed is also included. A semiconductor device is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2001
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies North America Corp.
    Inventors: Ulrike Gruening, Jochen Beintner, Dirk Tobben, Gill Lee, Oswald Spindler, Zvonimir Gabric
  • Patent number: 6171881
    Abstract: A single crystal silicon substrate (1) is bonded through an SiO2 film (9) to a single crystal silicon substrate (8), and the single crystal silicon substrate (1) is made into a thin film. A cantilever (13) is formed on the single crystal silicon substrate (1), and the thickness of the cantilever (13) in a direction parallel to the surface of the single crystal silicon substrate (1) is made smaller, than the thickness of the cantilever in the direction of the depth of the single crystal silicon substrate (1), and movable in a direction parallel to the substrate surface. In addition, the surface of the cantilever (13) and the part of the single crystal silicon substrate (1), opposing the cantilever (13), are, respectively, coated with an SiO2 film (5), so that an electrode short circuit is prevented in a capacity-type sensor. In addition, a signal-processing circuit (10) is formed on the single crystal silicon substrate (1), so that signal processing is performed as the cantilever (13) moves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2001
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventor: Tetsuo Fujii
  • Patent number: 6172389
    Abstract: A DRAM has a plurality of memory cells each including memory cell transistor and a peripheral circuit having a resistor element. The resistor element formed from a common layer with a contact plug in contact with the diffused regions of the cell transistor is disposed on a dummy pattern formed from common layer with the gate electrode of the cell transistor. The equal level for the resistor element and the contact plug provides an excellent fine patterning, thereby reducing the chip size of the DRAM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2001
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Takashi Sakoh
  • Patent number: 6169039
    Abstract: An integrated circuit and a method of forming an integrated circuit is described. The integrated circuit includes a silicon substrate, a dielectric stack formed on the silicon substrate, and conductive metal lines overlying the silicon substrate. A first layer of low-k dielectric material overlies the at least one conductive metal line, and a second layer of low-k dielectric material overlies the first layer of low-k dielectric material. The first layer of low-k dielectric material is electron beam (E-beam) cured and the second layer of low-k dielectric material is thermally cured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2001
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Ming-Ren Lin, Shekhar Pramanick, David Bang
  • Patent number: 6162698
    Abstract: This invention relates to a method of manufacturing a capacitor in a semiconductor device. When forming a capacitor, just after forming the first ferroelectric PZT layer, supply of a DC bias voltage is maintained for a few minutes under the RF plasma before a cooling process, wherein then the cooling speed is rapidly increased so that a fine structure of the first PZT layer is transformed in the second PZT layer having a grain boundary of orientation polarization in the vertical direction and the domain structure. Just after forming the first ferroelectric PZT layer, after the RF plasma supply is shut off, an annealing process is performed for 5-20 minute at its temperature and then the cooling process is performed within 30 degree Celsius per minutes so that a fine structure of the first PZT layer is transformed to the second PZT layer having a grain boundary of orientation polarization in the vertical direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2000
    Assignee: Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yong Sik Yu
  • Patent number: 6162725
    Abstract: Transparent electrodes of a plasma display panel is patterned from a transparent conductive layer by using a lift-off technique; a photo-resist mask is roughened through exposure to oxygen plasma before the deposition of the transparent conductive layer, and the rough surface causes the photo-resist mask to be partially uncovered with the transparent conductive layer, thereby allowing photo-resist remover to rapidly penetrate into the boundary between the photo-resist mask and a glass substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2000
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Yoshito Tanaka
  • Patent number: 6159809
    Abstract: In a method for manufacturing a surface channel type P-channel MOS transistor, a gate insulating layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a gate electrode is formed on the gate insulating layer. Then, a P-type impurity diffusion preventing operation is performed upon the gate electrode, and P-type impurities are implanted into the gate electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2000
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Mitsuhiro Togo