Abstract: A purchased silicon substrate 10 is subjected to D-HF treatment, SC-1 treatment, etc. to expose the surface of the silicon substrate 10. Then, the silicon substrate 10 having the surface exposed and containing grown-in defects 12 and micro oxygen precipitates 14 is subjected to oxygen out-diffusion annealing in an argon gas ambient. The annealing is performed, e.g., in an argon gas ambient, at a temperature of about 1000 to about 1300° C. for about 1 hour. Thus, the defects 12, 14 which are near the surface of the silicon substrate 10 are reduced, and the defects in the substrate surface can be decreased.

Abstract: A rugged polysilicon electrode for a capacitor has high surface area enhancement with a thin layer by high nucleation density plus gas phase doping which also enhances grain shape and oxygen-free dielectric formation.

Abstract: A high voltage metal oxide semiconductor device. The high voltage device comprises a high voltage NMOS, a high voltage PMOS, or a high voltage CMOS. A field oxide layer is used to isolate the gate from the source region, while a diffusion region is formed under the field oxide layer. A channel region around the source drain extends across a first doped well and a second doped well having different dopant concentration. The channel region further comprises two grading regions with different dopant concentrations around the drain region.

Abstract: A trench MOS-gated device comprises a doped monocrystalline semiconductor substrate that includes an upper layer and is of a first conduction type. An extended trench in the upper layer of the substrate has a bottom portion filled with a dielectric material that forms a thick layer in the bottom of the trench. The upper portion of the trench is lined with a dielectric material and substantially filled with a conductive material, the filled upper portion of the trench forming a gate region. An extended doped zone of a second opposite conduction type extends from the upper surface into the upper layer on one side of the trench, and a doped well region of the second conduction type overlying a drain zone of the first conduction type is disposed in the upper layer on the opposite side of the trench. The drain zone is substantially insulated from the extended zone by the thick dielectric layer in the bottom portion of the trench.

Abstract: A method of fabricating an integrated circuit on a wafer includes forming a gate electrode stack over a gate dielectric and forming nitride spacers along sidewalls of the gate electrode stack other than along lowermost portions of the sidewalls. Subsequently, a reoxidation process is performed with respect to the gate dielectric. By providing the nitride spacers along exposed surfaces of conductive barrier and metal layers of the word line stack, those surfaces can be passivated, thereby preventing or reducing the conversion of those layers to non-conductive compounds during the reoxidation process. At the same time, the nitride spacers can be formed so that they do not interfere with the subsequent reoxidation of the gate dielectric. An integrated circuit having a gate electrode stack with nitride spacers extending along sidewalls of the gate electrode stack other than along lowermost portions of the sidewalls is also disclosed.

Abstract: To improve the gettering performance by ion implanting boron and improves the production yield of the semiconductor device by using an epitaxial wafer of good quality suppressing the occurrence of dislocations. For this purpose, an epitaxial wafer in which an epitaxial layer of about 1 &mgr;m is formed to a CZ semiconductor substrate implanted with boron ions which are dopant and carbon ions which are not a dopant is provided, and transistors are formed on the surface of the epitaxial layer.

Abstract: A photo detective unit includes a photo detective semiconductor chip including a photo detective element formed under a first manufacturing condition and a buffer circuit for shaping output waveform of the photo detective element, and a signal processing semiconductor chip formed under a second manufacturing condition and responsive to voltage from the photo detective semiconductor chip for generating digital data, and the photo detective semiconductor chip and the signal processing semiconductor chip are together accommodated in a single package.

Abstract: A semiconductor structure includes a first substrate portion having a surface and a first active region disposed in the first substrate portion. An insulator region is disposed on the first substrate portion outside of the first active region and extends out from the surface. A second substrate portion is disposed on the insulator region, and a second active region is disposed in the second substrate portion. Thus, by disposing a portion of the substrate on the isolation region, the usable substrate area is dramatically increased.

Abstract: A semiconductor device with the trench isolation structure is provided, in which the leakage current problem does not occur. This device is comprised ofa semiconductor substrate, an isolation trench formed in a surface region of the substrate and filled with first and second isolation dielectrics, an interlayer dielectric layer formed on the surface region of the substrate to cover the isolation trench, and a conductive layer formed on the interlayer dielectric layer to be overlapped with the isolation trench. The interlayer dielectric layer has a contact hole located near the isolation trench. The contact hole is formed by etching. The conductive layer is contacted with and electrically connected to a region of the substrate through the contact hole of the interlayer dielectric layer. The first isolation dielectric serves as a primary insulator. The second isolation dielectric serves as a secondary insulator.

Abstract: A lateral PNP bipolar electronic device integrated monolithically on a semiconductor substrate together with other NPN bipolar devices capable of being operated at high frequencies. The PNP device is incorporated to an electrically insulated multilayer structure which comprises a semiconductor substrate, doped for conductivity of the P-type, a first buried layer, doped for conductivity of the N-type to provide a base region, and a second layer, overlying the first and having conductivity of the N-type, to provide an active area distinguishable by a P-doped emitter region within the active area being located peripherally and oppositely from a P-doped collector region. The lateral PNP device can be operated at high frequencies with suitable collector current values and good amplification, to provide a superior figure of merit compared to that typical of conventional lateral PNP devices.

Abstract: Trench capacitors are fabricated utilizing a method which results in a refractory metal salicide as a component of the trench electrode in a lower region of the trench. The salicide-containing trench electrode exhibits reduced series resistance compared to conventional trench electrodes of similar dimensions, thereby enabling reduced ground rule memory cell layouts and/or reduced cell access time. The trench capacitors of the invention are especially useful as components of DRAM memory cells.

Abstract: A ferroelectric memory cell for storing information. The information is stored in the remnant polarization of a ferroelectric dielectric layer by setting the direction of the remnant polarization. The ferroelectric memory cell is designed to store the information at a temperature less than a first temperature. The memory cell includes top and bottom contacts that sandwich the dielectric layer which includes a ferroelectric material having a Curie point greater than the first temperature and less than 400° C. The dielectric layer is encapsulated in an oxygen impermeable material such that the encapsulating layer prevents oxygen from entering or leaving the dielectric layer. One of the contacts typically includes a platinum electrode. The other contact may include a similar electrode or a semiconductor layer having electrodes spaced apart thereon.

Abstract: The encapsulation of gate stacks of a semiconductor device in an oxide insulative layer and in a silicon nitride etch-stop layer allows the formation of a contact filling for connection to underlying diffusion regions without risk of accidental diffusion contact to gate shorts created by the contact filling. As a result, the gate stacks may be patterned closer together, thus reducing the cell size and increasing the cell density. Furthermore, use of the etch-stop layer makes contact lithography easier since the size of the contact opening can be increased and contact alignment tolerance made less stringent without concern of increasing the cell size or of creating diffusion contact to gate shorts.

Abstract: A semiconductor circuit device having a triple-well structure wherein a predetermined potential level is supplied to a top well without a contact region formed in the top well is disclosed. In an N-type ion implantation step for forming an N-type well region (1) in a P-type semiconductor substrate (5), a mask of a predetermined configuration is used so that ions are not implanted into a region of a portion which is to serve as a bottom portion (1B) of the well region (1). Then, the N-type well region (1) is formed which is shaped such that a portion (6) having P-type properties remains partially in the bottom portion (1B). The P-type portion (6) establishes electrical connection between a P-type well region (2) and the semiconductor substrate (5) to permit the potential applied to a contact region (4) to be supplied to the well region (2) therethrough. The portion (6) may include a plurality of portions (6) which allow uniform potential supply.

Abstract: An improved low voltage, small surface area, high signal-to-noise ratio photo gate includes a layer of photoreceptive semiconductor material having an impurity concentration selected to enhance the formation of hole electron pairs in response to photons impinging on a surface of the substrate, an electrode extending from the surface of the substrate into the substrate a substantial distance; an insulating layer disposed between the electrode and the substrate for electrically insulating the electrode from the substrate; so that upon the application of an electrical potential to the electrode, a potential well is formed in the substrate surrounding the electrode for accumulating charge generated when photons impinge on the surface of the substrate surrounding the electrode.

Abstract: An integrated semiconductor circuit has a protection structure for protecting against electrostatic discharge. The protection element has at least one integrated vertical protection transistor, whose load path is connected between the terminal pad and a potential rail. The base of the vertical npn bipolar transistor is controlled by a diode at breakdown, whose breakdown voltage is above the holding voltage of the npn bipolar transistors. By suitably choosing the location of the base contact, of the pn junction of the breakdown diode, and of the emitter, a desired adjustment of the trigger current is possible. Thus a variation in the voltage drop at the base is achieved which enables a current flow. The signal voltage requirements can be met and at the same time, an optimization of the ESD strength is achieved. The control or trigger sensitivity of the base can also be adjusted by means of an integrated resistor, which is disposed in the base zone.

Abstract: An integrated electrical circuit has at least one memory cell, in which the memory cell is disposed in the region of a surface of a semiconductor substrate. The memory cell contains at least two inverters that are electrically connected to one another. The inverters each contain two complementary MOS transistors having a source, a drain and a channel, the channels of the complementary MOS transistors having different conductivity types. According to the invention, the integrated electrical circuit is constructed in such a way that the inverters are disposed perpendicularly to the surface of the semiconductor substrate. The source, the drain and the channel of the complementary MOS transistors are formed by layers which lie one on top of the other and are disposed in such a way that the complementary MOS transistors are situated one above the other. The invention furthermore relates to a method for fabricating the integrated electrical circuit.

Abstract: A structure for high-voltage semiconductor devices that have trench structure, substantially facilitating the integration of the high-voltage devices and the low-voltage devices, is disclosed. The present invention includes a semiconductor substrate and at least two dielectric regions in the substrate, one of the dielectric regions being spaced from the other of the dielectric regions by a channel region. The structure also includes at least two drift regions, each of the drift regions being adjacent to and in contact with each of the dielectric regions respectively. A gate region is formed on the substrate, wherein the gate region covers the channel region and portions of the dielectric regions. A source region adjacent to one of the dielectric region is formed, wherein the source region is spaced from the channel region by such adjacent dielectric region.

Abstract: An improved storage node junction between a doped active area in a semiconductor substrate and an overlying layer of polysilicon, such as the storage node junction in a DRAM memory cell. The area and perimeter of the storage node junction is significantly reduced and the junction is moved away from the adjacent isolation structure. An exemplary semiconductor device incorporating the new junction includes a storage node junction between a conductive polysilicon layer and an active area on a semiconductor substrate, the substrate having been subjected to LOCOS steps to create active areas bounded by a region of field oxide. An insulated gate electrode is formed over an active area on the substrate, which has been doped to a first conductivity type. A contact region comprising a portion of the active area extends laterally between one side of the gate electrode and the field oxide region.

Abstract: In an X-ROM memory device both metal changeable GND lines and polysilicon changeable GND lines are used as a changeable GND line. The metal changeable GND lines are respectively located on both sides of an array of a fixed number of polysilicon changeable GND lines. Odd polysilicon changeable GND lines are commonly connected to one metal changeable GND line through a predetermined polysilicon line, and even polysilicon changeable GND lines are commonly connected to the other metal changeable GND line through another predetermined polysilicon line. Each of the metal changeable GND lines are then connected to a GND terminal through the driving cell transistors.