Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having at least one gap, extending under a portion of the semiconductor substrate. A gate stack is on the semiconductor substrate. A strain layer is formed in at least a portion of the at least one gap. The strain layer is formed only under at least one of a source region and a drain region of the semiconductor device.

Abstract: A structure including a dual silicide region and a related method are disclosed. The structure may include a doped silicon, and a dual silicide region in the doped silicon, the dual silicide region including a first silicide region including a mid band gap metal, and a second silicide region including a near band gap metal, wherein the second silicide region is immediately adjacent to the doped silicon. The method may include forming a first silicide portion in a doped silicon by depositing a first metal over the doped silicon, annealing and removing unreacted first metal; ion implanting a second metal into the doped silicon; and annealing to form a second silicide portion from the second metal, wherein the first metal is different than the second metal.

Abstract: A contact structure and method of forming same are disclosed. The contact structure may include a metal body surrounded by a dielectric spacer, the metal body and the dielectric spacer positioned within an interlevel dielectric layer, wherein the metal body is electrically coupled to a silicide region below a lowermost portion of the metal body.

Abstract: There is a FinFET device. The device has a silicon substrate, an oxide layer, and a polysilicone gate. The silicon substrate defines a planar body, a medial body, and a fin. The planar body, the medial body, and the fin are integrally connected. The medial body connects the planar body and the fine. The planar body extends generally around the medial body. The fin is situated to extend substantially from a first side of the substrate to an opposing second side of the substrate. The fin is substantially perpendicularly disposed with respect to the planar body. The first oxide layer is situated on the planar body between the planar body and the fine. The oxide layer extends substantially around the medial body. The polysilicone gate is situated on the oxide layer to extend substantially from a third side to an opposing fourth side of the substrate. The gate is situated to extend across the fin proximal to a medial portion of an upper surface of the fine. There is also a process for making a FinFET device.

Abstract: A method for making a semiconductor device structure, includes: providing a substrate; forming on the substrate: a first layer below and second layers on a gate with spacers, source and drain regions adjacent to the gate, silicides on the gate and source and drain regions; disposing a stress layer over the structure resulting from the forming step; disposing an insulating layer over the stress layer; removing portions of the insulating layer to expose a top surface of the stress layer; removing the top surface and other portions of the stress layer and portions of the spacers to form a trench, and then disposing a suitable stress material into the trench.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing a device including an n-type device and a p-type device. In an aspect of the invention, the method involves forming a shallow-trench-isolation oxide (STI) isolating the n-type device from the p-type device. The method further involves adjusting the shallow-trench-isolation oxide corresponding to at least one of the n-type device and the p-type device such that a thickness of the shallow-trench-isolation oxide adjacent to the n-type device is different from a thickness of the shallow-trench-isolation oxide adjacent to the p-type device, and forming a strain layer over the semiconductor substrate.

Abstract: An SOI semiconductor device includes a silicon semiconductor layer divided into an FET region with source, channel, and drain regions therein formed on a BOX layer, with a switch region next to the FET region; and a contact region next to the switch region distal from the FET region. The FET region has a greater thickness than the switch region. A conformal gate dielectric layer covers the FET region and the switch. A dual function gate electrode formed over the gate dielectric layer includes an FET portion above the FET region and an auxiliary gate portion extending therefrom above the switch region. A contact is formed reaching through the gate dielectric layer into electrical and mechanical contact with the contact region. The switch varies the depth of the depletion region to open and close current flow between the channel of the FET device and the contact region to suppress subthreshold leakage current.

Abstract: A semiconductor device structure is provided which includes a first field effect transistor (“FET”) having a first channel region, a first source region, a first drain region and a first gate conductor overlying the first channel region. A second FET is included which has a second channel region, a second source region, a second drain region and a second gate conductor overlying the second channel region. The first and second gate conductors can be portions of a single elongated conductive member extending over both the first and second channel regions. A first stressed film may overlie the first FET and the first stressed film may apply a stress having a first value to the first channel region. A second stressed film may overlie the second FET and the second stressed film may apply a stress having a second value to the second channel region. The second value is substantially different from the first value.

Abstract: A method of processing a substrate of a device comprises the as following steps. Form a cap layer over the substrate. Form a dummy layer over the cap layer, the cap layer having a top surface. Etch the dummy layer forming patterned dummy elements of variable widths and exposing sidewalls of the dummy elements and portions of the top surface of the cap layer aside from the dummy elements. Deposit a spacer layer over the device covering the patterned dummy elements and exposed surfaces of the cap layer. Etch back the spacer layer forming sidewall spacers aside from the sidewalls of the patterned dummy elements spaced above a minimum spacing and forming super-wide spacers between sidewalls of the patterned dummy elements spaced less than the minimum spacing. Strip the patterned dummy elements. Expose portions of the substrate aside from the sidewall spacers. Pattern exposed portions of the substrate by etching into the substrate.

Abstract: Both sides of a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate are utilized to form MOSFET structures. After forming first type devices on a first semiconductor layer, a handle wafer is bonded to the top of a first middle-of-line dielectric layer. A lower portion of a carrier substrate is then removed to expose a second semiconductor layer and to form second type devices thereupon. Conductive vias may be formed through the buried insulator layer to electrically connect the first type devices and the second type devices. Use of block masks is minimized since each side of the buried insulator has only one type of devices. Two levels of devices are present in the structure and boundary areas between different types of devices are reduced or eliminated, thereby increasing packing density of devices. The same alignment marks may be used to align the wafer either front side up or back side up.

Abstract: A semiconductor structure including at least one transistor located on a surface of a semiconductor substrate, wherein the at least one transistor has a sub-lithographic channel length, is provided. Also provided is a method to form such a semiconductor structure using self-assembling block copolymer that can be placed at a specific location using a pre-fabricated hard mask pattern.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to the formation of sublithographic features in a semiconductor structure using self-assembling polymers. The self-assembling polymers are formed in openings in a hard mask, annealed and then etched, followed by etching of the underlying dielectric material. At least one sublithographic feature is formed according to this method. Also disclosed is an intermediate semiconductor structure in which at least one interconnect wiring feature has a dimension that is defined by a self-assembled block copolymer.

Abstract: A semiconducting material that has all the advantages of prior art SOI substrates including, for example, low parasitic capacitance and leakage, without having floating body effects is provided. More specifically, the present invention provides a Semiconductor-on-Pores (SOP) material that includes a top semiconductor layer and a bottom semiconductor layer, wherein the semiconductor layers are separated in at least one region by a porous semiconductor material. Semiconductor structures including the SOP material as a substrate as well as a method of fabricating the SOP material are also provided. The method includes forming a p-type region with a first semiconductor layer, converting the p-type region to a porous semiconductor material, sealing the upper surface of the porous semiconductor material by annealing, and forming a second semiconductor layer atop the porous semiconductor material.

Abstract: The present invention provides an interconnect structure (of the single or dual damascene type) and a method of forming the same, in which a dense (i.e., non-porous) dielectric spacer is present on the sidewalls of a dielectric material. More specifically, the inventive structure includes a dielectric material having a conductive material embedded within at least one opening in the dielectric material, wherein the conductive material is laterally spaced apart from the dielectric material by a diffusion barrier, a dense dielectric spacer and, optionally, an air gap. The presence of the dense dielectric spacer results in a hybrid interconnect structure that has improved reliability and performance as compared with existing prior art interconnect structures which do not include such dense dielectric spacers. Moreover, the inventive hybrid interconnect structure provides for better process control which leads to the potential for high volume manufacturing.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for forming an STI (shallow trench isolation) in a substrate during CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) semiconductor fabrication which includes providing at least two wells including dopants. A pad layer may be formed on a top surface of the substrate and a partial STI trench is etched in the upper portion of the substrate followed by etching to form a full STI trench. Boron is implanted in a lower area of the full STI trench forming an implant area which is anodized to form a porous silicon region, which is then oxidized to form a oxidized region. A dielectric layer is formed over the silicon nitride layer filling the full STI trench to provide, after etching, at least two electrical component areas on the top surface of the substrate having the full STI trench therebetween.

Abstract: The present invention provides structures and methods for providing multiple parallel V-shaped faceted grooves with sub-lithographic widths on a semiconductor substrate for enhanced performance MOSFETs. A self-aligning self-assembling material is used to pattern multiple parallel sub-lithographic lines. By employing an anisotropic etch that produces crystallographic facets on a semiconductor surface, multiple adjoining parallel V-shaped grooves with sub-lithographic groove widths are formed. While providing enhanced mobility for the MOSFET, the width of the MOSFET is not limited by the depth of focus in subsequent lithographic steps or the thickness of semiconductor layer above a BOX layer due to the sub-lithographic widths of the V-shaped grooves and the consequent reduction in the variation of the vertical profile. Also, the MOSFET has a well defined threshold voltage due to the narrow widths of each facet.

Abstract: Methods of fabricating a semiconductor device including a dual-hybrid liner in which an underlying silicide layer is protected from photoresist stripping chemicals by using a hard mask as a pattern during etching, rather than using a photoresist. The hard mask prevents exposure of a silicide layer to photoresist stripping chemicals and provides very good lateral dimension control such that the two nitride liners are well aligned.

Abstract: A process is provided for making a PFET and an NFET. Areas in a first semiconductor region adjacent to a gate stack are recessed. A lattice-mismatched semiconductor layer is grown in the recesses to apply a strain to the channel region of the PFET adjacent thereto. A layer of the first semiconductor material can be grown over the lattice-mismatched semiconductor layer and a salicide formed from the layer of silicon to provide low-resistance source and drain regions.

Abstract: A structure and method of fabricating reversible fuse and antifuse structures for semiconductor devices is provided. In one embodiment, the method includes forming at least one line having a via opening for exposing a portion of a plurality of interconnect features; conformally depositing a first material layer over the via opening; depositing a second material layer over the first material layer, wherein the depositing overhangs a portion of the second material layer on a top portion of the via opening; and depositing a blanket layer of insulating material, where the depositing forms a plurality of fuse elements each having an airgap between the insulating material and the second material layer. The method further includes forming a plurality of electroplates in the insulator material connecting the fuse elements.

Abstract: Multiple finFETs containing semiconductor fins with the same height for the top but with different heights for the bottom are formed. Patterned oxygen implant masks are used to form a buried oxide layer with at least two different levels of oxide top surface. After the formation of the buried oxide layer, the top semiconductor layer has a substantially level top surface. Fins are formed by lithographically patterning and etching the top semiconductor layer. The resulting fins may be semiconductor fins with different heights or fins comprising an upper portion of semiconductor fins and a lower portion of oxide fins. In both cases, semiconductor fins of different heights are used to form finFETs with fractional on-current of a full height finFET.