Patents Examined by V. Yevsikov
  • Patent number: 7232769
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an amorphous silica-based coating film with a low specific dielectric constant of 2.5 or below and the Young's modulus of 6.0 GPa or more and having excellent hydrophobic property, and to a method of forming the same. A liquid composition containing a silicon compound obtained by hydrolyzing tetraalkyl ortho silicate (TAOS) and specific alkoxysilane (AS) in the presence of tetraalkyl ammonium hydroxide (TAAOH) is prepared. The liquid composition is then applied on a substrate, heated and cured to obtain a coating film. The coating film obtained as described has a smooth surface and also has specific micropores therein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignees: Catalysts & Chemicals Industries Co., Ltd., Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Akira Nakashima, Miki Egami, Michio Komatsu, Yoshihiro Nakata, Ei Yano, Katsumi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7229898
    Abstract: Improved fabrication processes for manufacturing GeOI type wafers are disclosed. In an implementation, a method for fabricating a germanium on insulator wafer includes providing a source substrate having a surface, at least a layer of germanium and a weakened area. The weakened area is located at a predetermined depth in the germanium layer of the source substrate and is generally parallel to the source substrate surface. The technique also includes providing a germanium oxynitride layer in or on the source substrate, bonding the source substrate surface to a handle substrate to form a source-handle structure, and detaching the source substrate from the source-handle structure at the weakened area of the source substrate to create the germanium on insulator wafer having, as a surface, a useful layer of germanium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: S.O.I.Tec Silicon on Insulator Technologies S.A.
    Inventors: Konstantin Bourdelle, Fabrice Letertre, Bruce Faure, Christophe Morales, Chrystel Deguet
  • Patent number: 7227215
    Abstract: According to some embodiments, a capacitor includes a storage conductive pattern, a storage electrode having a complementary member enclosing a storage conductive pattern so as to complement an etch loss of the storage electrode, a dielectric layer disposed on the storage electrode, and a plate electrode disposed on the dielectric layer. Because the complementary member compensates for the etch loss of the storage electrode during several etching processes, the deterioration of the structural stability of the storage electrode may be prevented. Additionally, because the complementary member is formed on an upper portion of the storage electrode, the storage electrode may have a sufficient thickness to enhance the electrical characteristics of the capacitor that includes the storage electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2007
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Je-Min Park, Jin-Jun Park
  • Patent number: 7223671
    Abstract: The present invention provides an electrolytic capacitor that operates stably even when used for a long period of time under severe conditions, and forms an intermediate composition portion of metal and oxide within a chemical conversion film to a thickness of 40 nm or more so as to suppress the migration of oxygen atoms within a chemical conversion film of a valve metal. This intermediate composition portion is obtained by subjecting a base metal comprised by containing nitrogen in a valve action metal to anodic oxidation treatment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2007
    Assignee: Cabot Supermetals K.K.
    Inventors: Isayuki Horio, Tomoo Izumi
  • Patent number: 7220641
    Abstract: The present invention discloses improved method for manufacturing semiconductor device wherein a barrier layer is formed by thermally treating a hard mask polysilicon layer for protecting the sacrificial oxide film and the hard mask polysilicon film from damages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2007
    Assignee: Hynix Semiconductor, Inc.
    Inventor: Ki Won Nam
  • Patent number: 7211506
    Abstract: The present invention provides methods of forming cobalt layers on a structure comprising forming a preliminary cobalt layer on a semiconductor substrate by introducing an organic metal precursor onto the semiconductor substrate and treating a surface of the preliminary cobalt layer under an atmosphere of a hydrogen-containing gas to remove impurities contained in the preliminary cobalt layer. Compositions of cobalt layers are also provided. Further provided are semiconductor devices comprising cobalt layers provided herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2007
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kwang-Jin Moon, Gil-Heyun Choi, Sang-Bom Kang, Hyun-Su Kim
  • Patent number: 7205226
    Abstract: A method for etching a trench is provided. The method initiates with providing a substrate having a patterned feature. The method includes alternating between deposition of a protective layer onto inner surfaces of the patterned feature and etching the trench into the substrate. The alternating may be achieved through a gas modulation technique and in one embodiment, the deposition and the etching are performed in the same chamber, i.e., the substrate does not move to a different chamber between the etch and deposition processes. The alternating is continued until the trench is completed and then the trench is filled. A semiconductor processing system is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2007
    Assignee: Lam Research Corporation
    Inventors: David Schaefer, Robert Charatan
  • Patent number: 7205225
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device (10) with a semiconductor body (1) and a substrate (2) comprising at least one semiconductor element (3) and provided with at least one connection region (4) and an overlying stripe-shaped connection conductor (5) which is connected to the connection region (4), which connection conductor and connection region are both recessed in a dielectric material, where subsequently a first dielectric layer (6), a hard mask layer (7), and a second dielectric layer (8) are deposited on the semiconductor body (1), where at the location of the connection region (4) to be formed, a via (44) is formed in the first dielectric layer (6) by means of plasma etching using a plasma containing a compound of carbon and fluor, and in the presence of a patterned photoresist layer deposited on top of the structure and at the location of the connection conductor (6) to be formed, a trench (55) is formed in the second dielectric layer (8) by means of plasma etching
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2007
    Assignee: NXP, B.V.
    Inventor: Yukiko Furukawa
  • Patent number: 7189660
    Abstract: A method of producing an insulator thin film, for forming a thin film on a substrate by use of the atomic layer deposition process, includes a first step of forming a silicon atomic layer on the substrate and forming an oxygen atomic layer on the silicon atomic layer, and a second step of forming a metal atomic layer on the substrate and forming an oxygen atomic layer on the metal atomic layer, wherein the concentration of the metal atoms in the insulator thin film is controlled by controlling the number of times the first step and the second step are carried out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2007
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Tomoyuki Hirano
  • Patent number: 7186604
    Abstract: After forming a silicon oxide film 9 on the surface of a region A of a semiconductor substrate 1, a high dielectric constant insulating film 10, a silicon film, a silicon oxide film 14 are successively deposited over the semiconductor substrate 1, and they are patterned to leave the silicon oxide film 14 in regions for forming gate electrodes. Then, after fabricating silicon films 13n and 13p by using the patterned silicon oxide film 14 as a mask, when removing the silicon oxide film 14, etching is performed under the condition where the etching selectivity of the silicon oxide film 14 to the high dielectric constant insulating film 10 becomes large, thereby leaving the high dielectric constant insulating film 10 also to portions below the end of the gate electrodes (13n, 13p). Thus, it is possible to ensure the voltage withstanding thereof and improve the characteristics of MISFET.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2007
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Satoshi Sakai, Satoshi Yamamoto, Atsushi Hiraiwa, Ryoichi Furukawa
  • Patent number: 7183214
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a semiconductor substrate is placed into a process chamber. A gas mixture including a silicon-containing gas, a fluorine-containing gas, an inert gas, and an oxygen gas is introduced into the chamber at a pressure range of from about 30 mTorr to about 90 mTorr. During this time, deposition and etching processes are concurrently performed using a plasma to form a high-density plasma (HDP) insulating layer on the semiconductor substrate. A ratio of deposition to etching is from about 3:1 to about 10:1. A ratio of a flow rate of the fluorine-containing gas to a flow rate of the silicon-containing gas is less than about 0.9.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2007
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Lgd.
    Inventors: Jeong-Hoon Nam, Jin-Ho Jeon
  • Patent number: 7179706
    Abstract: The present teachings describe a container capacitor that utilizes an etchant permeable lower electrode for the formation of single or double-sided capacitors without excessive etching back of the periphery of the use of sacrificial spacers. The present teachings further describe a method of forming at least one capacitor structure on a substrate. For example, the method comprises forming at least one recess in the substrate, depositing a first conductive layer on the substrate so as to overlie the at least one recess, and defining at least one lower electrode within the at least one recess formed in the substrate by removing at least a portion of the first conductive layer. The method further comprises diffusing an etchant through the at least one lower electrode so as to remove at least a portion of the substrate to thereby at least partially isolate the at least one lower electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2007
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert D. Patraw, Michael A. Walker
  • Patent number: 7163853
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing a capacitor and a metal gate on a semiconductor device comprises forming a dummy gate on a substrate, forming a trench layer on the substrate and adjacent the dummy gate, forming a capacitor trench in the trench layer, forming a bottom electrode layer in the capacitor trench, removing the dummy gate to provide a gate trench, forming a dielectric layer in the capacitor trench and the gate trench, and forming a metal layer over the dielectric layer in the capacitor trench and the gate trench.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2007
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Kuo-Chi Tu
  • Patent number: 7164183
    Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a porous layer, a structure which is formed on the porous layer and has a semiconductor region whose height of the sectional shape is larger than the width, and a strain inducing region which strains the structure by applying stress to it.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2007
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kiyofumi Sakaguchi, Nobuhiko Sato
  • Patent number: 7160779
    Abstract: A method for making a semiconductor device is described. That method comprises forming a high-k gate dielectric layer that contacts a metal oxide layer. The metal oxide layer is generated by forming a metal layer, then oxidizing the metal layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2007
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Mark L. Doczy, Jack Kavalieros, Justin K. Brask, Matthew V. Metz, Suman Datta, Brian S. Doyle, Robert S. Chau
  • Patent number: 7157329
    Abstract: A trench capacitor with improved strap is disclosed. The strap is located above the top surface of the capacitor. The top surface of the trench capacitor, which is formed by the top surfaces of the collar and storage plate, is planar. By locating the strap on a planar surface, the divot present in conventional strap processes is avoided. This results in improved strap reliability and device performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2007
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Helmut Tews, Jochen Beintner, Stephan Kudelka
  • Patent number: 7157287
    Abstract: A method of fabricating a CMR thin film for use in a semiconductor device includes preparing a CMR precursor in the form of a metal acetate based acetic acid solution; preparing a wafer; placing a wafer in a spin-coating chamber; spin-coating and heating the wafer according to the following: injecting the CMR precursor into a spin-coating chamber and onto the surface of the wafer in the spin-coating chamber; accelerating the wafer to a spin speed of between about 1500 RPM to 3000 RPM for about 30 seconds; baking the wafer at a temperature of about 180° C. for about one minute; ramping the temperature to about 230° C.; baking the wafer for about one minute at the ramped temperature; annealing the wafer at about 500° C. for about five minutes; repeating said spin-coating and heating steps at least three times; post-annealing the wafer at between about 500° C. to 600° C. for between about one to six hours in dry, clean air; and completing the semiconductor device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2007
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Wei-Wei Zhuang, Tingkai Li, Wei Pan, David R. Evans, Sheng Teng Hsu
  • Patent number: 7153780
    Abstract: A method of forming a thin film stack on a substrate, wherein the thin film stack includes at least a polysilicon layer and an oxide layer; forming a hardmask layer on the thin film stack; forming an anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer on the hardmask layer; patterning the ARC layer; etching the hardmask layer using the patterned ARC layer as a mask; and etching the thin film stack using the hardmask layer as a mask.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2006
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Ervin T. Hill, Oleh P. Karpenko, Gordon T. McGarvey, Linda N. Marquez
  • Patent number: 7148079
    Abstract: Diamond like carbon silicon on insulator substrates and methods of fabrication thereof are disclosed. In one form, a process for creating a composite structure for fabricating an electronic device is disclosed. The process includes forming a first diamond-like carbon layer on a substrate and coupling a support layer to the diamond-like carbon layer. The substrate is reduced to provide a device layer for fabricating a microelectronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2006
    Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Sankar N. Raman, Patrick L. Stallings, William C. Barnes
  • Patent number: 7144770
    Abstract: The invention provides a method for fabricating a memory cell, a substrate (101) being provided, a trench-type depression (102) being etched into the substrate (101), a barrier layer (103) being deposited non-conformally in the trench-type depression (102), grain elements (104) being grown on the inner areas of the trench-type depression (102), a dielectric layer (202) being deposited on the surfaces of the grain elements and the inner areas of the trench-type depression, and a conduction layer being deposited on the dielectric layer, the grain elements (104) growing selectively on the inner areas (105) of the trench-type depression (102) in an electrode region (301) forming a lower region of the trench-type depression (102) and an amorphous silicon layer continuing to grow in a collar region (302) forming an upper region of the trench-type depression (102).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2006
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
    Inventors: Albert Birner, Matthias Foerster, Thomas Hecht, Michael Stadtmueller, Andreas Orth