Patents by Inventor Ruqiang Bao

Ruqiang Bao has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10600884
    Abstract: An additive core subtractive liner method is described for forming electrically conductive contacts. The method can include forming a first trench in an first dielectric layer to expose a first portion of a metal liner, and filling said first trench with a second dielectric layer. A metal cut trench is formed in the second dielectric layer. A portion of the metal liner exposed by the metal cut trench is removed with a subtractive method. The method continues with filling the metal cut trench with a dielectric fill, and replacing the remaining portions of the second dielectric layer with an additive core conductor to provide contacts to remaining portions of the metal liner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Kisup Chung, Andrew M. Greene, Sivananda K. Kanakasabapathy, David L. Rath, Indira P. V. Seshadri, Rajasekhar Venigalla
  • Publication number: 20200091319
    Abstract: According to an embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor structure includes a semiconductor substrate and a plurality of fins located on the semiconductor substrate. The plurality of fins each independently includes a bottom fin portion, a top fin portion layer, and an isolated oxide layer located in between the bottom fin portion and the top fin portion layer in the y-direction parallel to the height of the plurality of fins. The isolated oxide layer includes a mixed oxide region located in between oxidized regions in an x-direction perpendicular to the height of the plurality of fins.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 18, 2018
    Publication date: March 19, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Hemanth Jagannathan, Paul C. Jamison, Choonghyun Lee
  • Publication number: 20200083350
    Abstract: An additive core subtractive liner method is described for forming electrically conductive contacts. The method can include forming a first trench in a first dielectric layer to expose a first portion of a metal liner, and filling said first trench with a second dielectric layer. A metal cut trench is formed in the second dielectric layer. A portion of the metal liner exposed by the metal cut trench is removed with a subtractive method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2019
    Publication date: March 12, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Kisup Chung, Andrew M. Greene, Sivananda K. Kanakasabapathy, David L. Rath, Indira P.V. Seshadri, Rajasekhar Venigalla
  • Publication number: 20200083349
    Abstract: An additive core subtractive liner method is described for forming electrically conductive contacts. The method can include forming a first trench in a first dielectric layer to expose a first portion of a metal liner, and filling said first trench with a second dielectric layer. A metal cut trench is formed in the second dielectric layer. A portion of the metal liner exposed by the metal cut trench is removed with a subtractive method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2019
    Publication date: March 12, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Kisup Chung, Andrew M. Greene, Sivananda K. Kanakasabapathy, David L. Rath, Indira P.V. Seshadri, Rajasekhar Venigalla
  • Patent number: 10586767
    Abstract: A method for fabricating semiconductor wafers comprises creating a semiconductor wafer having a plurality of wide copper wires and a plurality of narrow copper wires embedded in a dielectric insulator. The width of each wide copper wire is greater than a cutoff value and each narrow copper is less than the cutoff value. An optical pass through layer is deposited over a top surface of the wafer and a photo-resist layer is deposited over the optical pass through layer. The wafer is exposed to a light source to selectively remove photo-resist, forming a self-aligned pattern where photo-resist only remains in areas above wide copper wires. The self-aligned pattern is transferred to the optical pass through layer and the remaining photo-resist is removed. The wafer is chemically etched to remove the narrow copper wires, defining narrow gaps in the dielectric insulator. The wafer is metallized with non-copper metal, forming narrow non-copper metal wires.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin D. Briggs, Cornelius Brown Peethala, Michael Rizzolo, Koichi Motoyama, Gen Tsutsui, Ruqiang Bao, Gangadhara Raja Muthinti, Lawrence A. Clevenger
  • Patent number: 10586854
    Abstract: One example of an apparatus includes a conducting channel region. The conducting channel region includes a plurality of epitaxially grown, in situ doped conducting channels arranged in a spaced apart relation relative to each other. A source positioned at a first end of the conducting channel region, and a drain positioned at a second end of the conducting channel region. A gate surrounds all sides of the conducting channel region and fills in spaces between the plurality of epitaxially grown, in situ doped conducting channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Michael A. Guillorn, Terence Hook, Robert R. Robison, Reinaldo Vega, Tenko Yamashita
  • Patent number: 10580881
    Abstract: A method of forming a vertical fin field effect transistor device, including, forming one or more vertical fins with a hardmask cap on each vertical fin on a substrate, forming a fin liner on the one or more vertical fins and hardmask caps, forming a sacrificial liner on the fin liner, and forming a bottom spacer layer on the sacrificial liner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Hemanth Jagannathan, Paul C. Jamison, ChoongHyun Lee
  • Publication number: 20200066603
    Abstract: A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming a plurality of fins over a top surface of a bottom source/drain region disposed over a top surface of a substrate, the fins providing vertical transport channels for a plurality of vertical transport field-effect transistors. The method also includes forming a first gate conductor surrounding a first one of an adjacent pair of the plurality of fins providing a first vertical transport channel for a first vertical transport field-effect transistor, forming a second gate conductor surrounding a second one of the adjacent pair of the plurality of fins providing a second vertical transport channel for a second vertical transport field-effect transistor, and forming at least one shared gate contact to the first gate conductor and the second gate conductor, the at least one shared gate contact being formed at first ends of the adjacent pair of the plurality of fins.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2018
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Hemanth Jagannathan, Brent A. Anderson, ChoongHyun Lee
  • Publication number: 20200066903
    Abstract: A semiconductor structure includes a substrate, a bottom source/drain region disposed on a top surface of the substrate, and a plurality of fins disposed over a top surface of the bottom source/drain region. The fins provide vertical transport channels for one or more vertical transport field-effect transistors. The semiconductor structure also includes at least one self-aligned shared contact disposed between an adjacent pair of the plurality of fins. The adjacent pair of the plurality of fins includes a first fin providing a first vertical transport channel for a first vertical transport field-effect transistor and a second fin providing a second vertical transport channel for a second vertical transport field-effect transistor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2018
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Brent A. Anderson, ChoongHyun Lee, Hemanth Jagannathan
  • Publication number: 20200066859
    Abstract: A gate structure for effective work function adjustments of semiconductor devices that includes a gate dielectric on a channel region of a semiconductor device; a first metal nitride in direct contact with the gate dielectric; a conformal carbide of Aluminum material layer having an aluminum content greater than 30 atomic wt. %; and a second metal nitride layer in direct contact with the conformal aluminum (Al) and carbon (C) containing material layer. The conformal carbide of aluminum (Al) layer includes aluminum carbide, or Al4C3, yielding an aluminum (Al) content up to 57 atomic % (at. %) and work function setting from 3.9 eV to 5.0 eV at thicknesses below 25 ?. Such structures can present metal gate length scaling and resistance benefit below 25 nm compared to state of the art work function electrodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2019
    Publication date: February 27, 2020
    Inventors: Takashi Ando, Ruqiang Bao, Masanobu Hatanaka, Vijay Narayanan, Yohei Ogawa, John Rozen
  • Publication number: 20200058555
    Abstract: Integrated chips and methods of forming the same include etching a first stack of layers in a first region and etching a second stack of layers in a second region. The first stack of layers includes a first semiconductor layer having a first thickness over a first sacrificial layer having a second thickness. Etching the first stack of layers removes the first sacrificial layer from the first stack of layers and creates a first gap. The second stack of layers includes a second semiconductor layer having a third thickness over a second sacrificial layer having a fourth thickness. Etching the second stack of layers removes the second sacrificial layer from the second stack of layers and to create a second gap. A dielectric material fills the first gap and the second gap.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2018
    Publication date: February 20, 2020
    Inventors: Huimei Zhou, Shogo Mochizuki, Gen Tsutsui, Ruqiang Bao
  • Publication number: 20200052125
    Abstract: A method of controlling threshold voltage shift that includes forming a first set of channel semiconductor regions on a first portion of a substrate, and forming a second set of channel semiconductor regions on a second portion of the substrate. A gate structure is formed on the first set of channel semiconductor regions and the second set of channel, wherein the gate structure extends from a first portion of the substrate over an isolation region to a second portion of the substrate. A gate cut region is formed in the gate structure over the isolation region. An oxygen scavenging metal containing layer is formed on sidewalls of the gate cut region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 9, 2018
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Inventors: Huimei Zhou, Ruqiang Bao, Michael P. Belyansky, Andrew M. Greene, Gen Tsutsui
  • Publication number: 20200044052
    Abstract: A method is presented for performing a gate cut in a field effect transistor (FET) structure. The method includes forming a plurality of fins and at least one insulating pillar over a semiconductor substrate, depositing a first work function metal layer, removing the first work function metal layer from a first set of fins, depositing a second work function metal layer, depositing a conductive material over the second work function metal layer, forming at least one gate trench through the conductive material and adjacent the first set of fins to separate active gate regions, and filling the at least one gate trench with an insulating material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Siva Kanakasabapathy, Andrew M. Greene
  • Publication number: 20200044051
    Abstract: A method is presented for performing a gate cut in a field effect transistor (FET) structure. The method includes forming a plurality of fins and at least one insulating pillar over a semiconductor substrate, depositing a first work function metal layer, removing the first work function metal layer from a first set of fins, depositing a second work function metal layer, depositing a conductive material over the second work function metal layer, forming at least one gate trench through the conductive material and adjacent the first set of fins to separate active gate regions, and filling the at least one gate trench with an insulating material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2019
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Siva Kanakasabapathy, Andrew M. Greene
  • Publication number: 20200043808
    Abstract: A technique relates to a semiconductor device. An N-type field effect transistor (NFET) and a P-type field effect transistor (PFET) each include an inner work function metal, an outer work function metal, a first nanosheet including an inner channel surface having a first threshold voltage, and a second nanosheet including an outer channel surface having a second threshold voltage. The outer work function metal is modified so as to cause the outer channel surface for the second nanosheet to have the second threshold voltage within a predefined amount of the first threshold voltage for the inner channel surface of the first nanosheet, the predefined amount being within about 20 millivolts (mV).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2018
    Publication date: February 6, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang BAO, Dechao GUO, Junli Wang, Heng WU
  • Patent number: 10553498
    Abstract: A first aspect of the invention provides for a method including: forming an interfacial layer in a first opening in a pFET region and a second opening in an nFET region, each opening being in a dielectric layer in the pFET region and the nFET region; forming a high-k layer over the interfacial layer in each of the first and second openings; forming a wetting layer over the high-k layer in each of the first and second openings; forming a first metal layer in each of the first and second openings, the first metal layer including tungsten; and forming a first gate electrode layer over the first metal layer to substantially fill each of the first and second openings, thereby forming a first replacement gate stack over the pFET region and a second replacement gate stack over the nFET region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Siddarth A. Krishnan
  • Patent number: 10553700
    Abstract: A method is presented for performing a gate cut in a field effect transistor (FET) structure. The method includes forming a plurality of fins and at least one insulating pillar over a semiconductor substrate, depositing a first work function metal layer, removing the first work function metal layer from a first set of fins, depositing a second work function metal layer, depositing a conductive material over the second work function metal layer, forming at least one gate trench through the conductive material and adjacent the first set of fins to separate active gate regions, and filling the at least one gate trench with an insulating material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Siva Kanakasabapathy, Andrew M. Greene
  • Publication number: 20200035808
    Abstract: Techniques for fabricating a semiconductor device having a two-part spacer. In one embodiment, a device is provided that comprises a spacer having a first portion and a second portion, where the first portion comprises one or more layers and the second portion comprises a dielectric material. In one or more implementations, the device further comprises an isolation layer coupled to the spacer, where the isolation layer comprises a silicon oxide material. In one or implementation, the device can further comprise a gate structure formed on a substrate, where the gate structure comprises a polysilicon contact portion, a first silicon dioxide portion, a silicon nitride portion and a second silicon dioxide portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2018
    Publication date: January 30, 2020
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Junli Wang, Dechao Guo, Heng Wu, Ernest Y. Wu
  • Patent number: 10546787
    Abstract: A semiconductor device including pairs of multiple threshold voltage (Vt) devices includes at least a first region corresponding to a first pair of Vt devices, a second region corresponding to a second pair of Vt devices including a first dipole layer, and a third region corresponding to a third pair of Vt devices including a second dipole layer different from the first dipole layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2020
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ruqiang Bao, Vijay Narayanan, Terence B. Hook, Hemanth Jagannathan
  • Publication number: 20200027840
    Abstract: A method for fabricating semiconductor wafers comprises creating a semiconductor wafer having a plurality of wide copper wires and a plurality of narrow copper wires embedded in a dielectric insulator. The width of each wide copper wire is greater than a cutoff value and each narrow copper is less than the cutoff value. An optical pass through layer is deposited over a top surface of the wafer and a photo-resist layer is deposited over the optical pass through layer. The wafer is exposed to a light source to selectively remove photo-resist, forming a self-aligned pattern where photo-resist only remains in areas above wide copper wires. The self-aligned pattern is transferred to the optical pass through layer and the remaining photo-resist is removed. The wafer is chemically etched to remove the narrow copper wires, defining narrow gaps in the dielectric insulator. The wafer is metallized with non-copper metal, forming narrow non-copper metal wires.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2018
    Publication date: January 23, 2020
    Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Benjamin D. BRIGGS, Cornelius Brown PEETHALA, Michael RIZZOLO, Koichi MOTOYAMA, Gen TSUTSUI, Ruqiang BAO, Gangadhara Raja MUTHINTI, Lawrence A. CLEVENGER