METHODS OF FORMING A SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE BY PERFORMING A WET ACID ETCHING PROCESS WHILE PREVENTING OR REDUCING LOSS OF ACTIVE AREA AND/OR ISOLATION REGIONS

Abstract

One method disclosed includes forming a sidewall spacer proximate a gate structure, forming a sacrificial layer of material above a protective cap layer, the sidewall spacer and a substrate, forming a sacrificial protection layer above the sacrificial layer, reducing a thickness of the sacrificial protection layer such that its upper surface is positioned at a level that is below the upper surface of the protective cap layer, performing a first etching process to remove a portion of the sacrificial layer and thereby expose the protective cap layer for further processing, performing a wet acid etching process that includes diluted HF acid in the etch chemistry to remove the protective cap layer and performing at least one process operation to remove at least one of the reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer or the sacrificial layer from above the surface of the substrate.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation-in-part of co-pending application Ser. No. 13/765,797, filed Feb. 13, 2013.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Generally, the present disclosure relates to the manufacture of sophisticated semiconductor devices, and, more specifically, to various methods of forming semiconductor devices by performing a wet acid etching process while preventing or reducing loss of active area and/or isolation regions.

2. Description of the Related Art

The fabrication of advanced integrated circuits, such as CPU's, storage devices, ASIC's (application specific integrated circuits) and the like, requires the formation of a large number of circuit elements in a given chip area according to a specified circuit layout, wherein so-called metal oxide field effect transistors (MOSFETs or FETs) represent one important type of circuit element that substantially determines performance of the integrated circuits. A FET is a planar device that typically includes a source region, a drain region, a channel region that is positioned between the source region and the drain region, and a gate electrode positioned above the channel region and separated therefrom by a gate insulation layer. Current flow through the FET is controlled by controlling the voltage applied to the gate electrode. If there is no voltage applied to the gate electrode, then there is no current flow through the device (ignoring undesirable leakage currents, which are relatively small). However, when an appropriate voltage is applied to the gate electrode, the channel region becomes conductive, and electrical current is permitted to flow between the source region and the drain region through the conductive channel region.

To improve the operating speed of FETs, and to increase the density of FETs on an integrated circuit device, device designers have greatly reduced the physical size of FETs over the years. More specifically, the channel length of FETs has been significantly decreased, which has resulted in improving the switching speed of FETs. However, decreasing the channel length of a FET also decreases the distance between the source region and the drain region. In some cases, this decrease in the separation between the source and the drain makes it difficult to efficiently inhibit the electrical potential of the source region and to prevent the channel from being adversely affected by the electrical potential of the drain. This is sometimes referred to as a so-called short channel effect, wherein the charac-teristic of the FET as an active switch is degraded.

In contrast to a FET, which has a planar structure, a so-called FinFET device has a three-dimensional (3D) structure. More specifically, in a FinFET, a generally vertically positioned fin-shaped active area is formed and a gate electrode encloses both sides and an upper surface of the fin-shaped active area to form a tri-gate structure so as to use a channel having a three-dimensional structure instead of a planar structure. In some cases, an insulating cap layer, e.g., silicon nitride, is positioned at the top of the fin and the FinFET device only has a dual-gate structure. Unlike a planar FET, in a FinFET device, a channel is formed perpendicular to a surface of the semiconducting substrate so as to reduce the physical size of the semiconductor device. Also, in a FinFET, the junction capacitance at the drain region of the device is greatly reduced, which tends to reduce at least some short channel effects.

For many early device technology generations, the gate structures of most transistor devices, whether a planar device or a 3D device, have been comprised of a plurality of silicon-based materials, such as a silicon dioxide and/or silicon oxynitride gate insulation layer, in combination with a polysilicon gate electrode. However, as the channel length of aggressively scaled transistor elements has become increasingly smaller, many newer generation devices employ gate structures that contain alternative materials in an effort to avoid the short channel effects which may be associated with the use of traditional silicon-based materials in reduced channel length transistors. For example, in some aggressively scaled transistor elements, which may have channel lengths on the order of approximately 10-20 nm or less, gate structures that include a so-called high-k dielectric gate insulation layer and one or more metal layers that function as the gate electrode (HK/MG) have been implemented. Such alternative gate structures have been shown to provide significantly enhanced operational characteristics over the heretofore more traditional silicon dioxide/polysilicon gate structure configurations.

Depending on the specific overall device requirements, several different high-k materials—i.e., materials having a dielectric constant, or k-value, of approximately 10 or greater—have been used with varying degrees of success for the gate insulation layer in an HK/MG gate electrode structure. For example, in some transistor element designs, a high-k gate insulation layer may include tantalum oxide (Ta₂O₅), hafnium oxide (HfO₂), zirconium oxide (ZrO₂), titanium oxide (TiO₂), aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), hafnium silicates (HfSiO_x) and the like. Furthermore, one or more non-polysilicon metal gate electrode materials—i.e., a metal gate stack—may be used in HK/MG configurations so as to control the work function of the transistor. These metal gate electrode materials may include, for example, one or more layers of titanium (Ti), titanium nitride (TiN), titanium-aluminum (TiAl), aluminum (Al), aluminum nitride (AlN), tantalum (Ta), tantalum nitride (TaN), tantalum carbide (TaC), tantalum carbonitride (TaCN), tantalum silicon nitride (TaSiN), tantalum silicide (TaSi) and the like.

There are two well-known processing methods for forming a planar or 3D transistor with a high-k/metal gate structure: (1) the so-called “gate last” or “replacement gate” technique; and (2) the so-called “gate first” technique. In the replacement gate technique, a so-called “dummy” or sacrificial gate structure is initially formed and remains in place as many process operations are performed to form the device, e.g., the formation of doped source/drain regions, performing an anneal process to repair damage to the substrate caused by the ion implantation processes and to activate the implanted dopant materials. At some point in the process flow, the sacrificial gate structure is removed to define a gate cavity where the final HK/MG gate structure for the device is formed. In general, using the “gate first” technique involves forming a stack of layers of material across the substrate, wherein the stack of materials includes a high-k gate insulation layer, one or more metal layers, a layer of polysilicon and a protective cap layer, e.g., silicon nitride. Thereafter, one or more etching processes are performed to pattern the stack of materials to thereby define the basic gate structures for the transistor devices.

FIGS. 1A-1D depict one illustrative prior art “gate first” technique that will be discussed in connection with some problems that may arise when using the gate first technique. As shown in FIG. 1A, the integrated circuit product 10 includes an illustrative PFET device 10P and an NFET device 10N that are formed in active regions of a semiconducting substrate 12. An illustrative trench isolation region 14 electrically isolates the devices 10P, 10N from one another. At the point of fabrication depicted in FIG. 1A, the gate structures 16P, 16N have been formed for the PFET device 10P and NFET device 10N, respectively. In the depicted example, the isolation region 14 has an uneven or gouged upper surface due to the undesirable consumption of some of the isolation regions 14 during previous processing operations. The gate structures 16P, 16N are generally comprised of a high-k gate insulation layer 18, one or more metal layers 20P, 20N, a layer of polysilicon 22 and gate cap layers 24P, 24N. Also depicted in FIG. 1A are illustrative sidewall spacers 26, e.g., silicon nitride. The number of metal layers and the types of metal layers employed in the PFET device 10P and NFET device 10N may be different. In general, the gate cap layer 24N on the NFET device 10N tends to be thicker than the gate cap layer 24P on the PFET device 10P. This situation typically occurs because an additional hard mask layer is formed on the NFET device 10N when silicon/germanium material (not shown) is grown in cavities (not shown) that were formed in the substrate 12 adjacent the gate structure 16P for the PFET device 10P.

The protective cap layers 24P, 24N and the spacers 26 were formed to protect the gate structures 16P, 16N from subsequent processing operations after the gates were patterned. At the point of processing depicted in FIG. 1A, the protective cap layers 24P, 24N must be removed so that a metal silicide region may be formed in the polysilicon gate material 22 so as to thereby reduce its contact resistance. But, it is also desirable that the spacers 26 remain in place so as to protect the gate structures 16P, 16N. Unfortunately, the spacers 26 and the gate cap layers 24P, 24N are typically made of the same material, e.g., silicon nitride, due to the effectiveness of that material in terms of being able to withstand many common processing operations and thereby provide good protection to the gate structures 16P, 16N. Thus, it is desirable that the gate cap layers 24P, 24N be removed while leaving in place the sidewall spacers 26.

As shown in FIG. 1B, a relatively thin layer of silicon dioxide 28 is deposited across the product 10. The purpose of the layer 28 is to protect the sidewall spacer 26 when the gate cap layers 24P, 24N are removed.

FIG. 1C depicts the device 10 after a dry, anisotropic etching process has been performed to remove all of the horizontally positioned portions of the layer of silicon dioxide 28. This results in the formation of spacer-type layers of silicon dioxide 28A on the sidewall spacer 26. This etching process operation exposes the upper surface 25 of the cap layers 24P, 24N so that they may subsequently be removed. Unfortunately, the etching process that is used to remove portions of the layer of silicon dioxide 28 also etches undesirable recesses 30 in the active regions of the substrate 12 and consumes additional portions of the isolation region 14. The depth of the recesses 30 may vary depending upon the particular application, e.g., the recesses may have a depth that falls within the range of about 7-21 nm Loss of material in the active region can result in performance loss for the device, e.g., the extension implants for the device may be located deeper in the substrate due to the loss of active region material, which may lead to different electrical behavior for the device. FIG. 1D depicts the device 10 after an etching process was performed to remove the gate cap layers 24P, 24N. The etching process also recesses the spacers 26 to a limited degree. In some cases, hot H₃PO₄ at a temperature in the range of 120-185° C. is used to selectively etch silicon nitride relative to silicon dioxide. However, the use of hot H₃PO₄ is not compatible with the use of titanium nitride in gate structures.

The present disclosure is directed to various methods of forming semiconductor devices by performing a dilute HF acid etching process while preventing or reducing loss of active area and/or isolation regions that may avoid, or at least reduce, the effects of one or more of the problems identified above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is discussed later.

Generally, the present disclosure is directed to various methods of forming semiconductor devices by performing a wet acid etching process where the etch chemistry includes diluted HF acid while preventing or reducing loss of active area and/or isolation regions. One illustrative method disclosed herein includes forming a gate structure of a transistor above a surface of a semiconductor substrate, forming a sidewall spacer proximate the gate structure, forming a sacrificial layer of material above the protective cap layer, the sidewall spacer and the substrate, forming a sacrificial protection layer above the sacrificial layer, reducing a thickness of the sacrificial protection layer such that, after the reduction, an upper surface of the reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer is positioned at a level that is below a level of an upper surface of the protective cap layer, with the reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer in position, performing a first etching process to remove the sacrificial layer from above the protective cap layer to thereby expose the protective cap layer for further processing, performing a wet acid etching process with an etch chemistry that includes a diluted HF acid to remove the protective cap layer and, after removing the protective cap layer, performing at least one process operation to remove at least one of the reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer or the sacrificial layer from above the surface of the substrate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure may be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which:

FIGS. 1A-1D depict one illustrative prior art gate first technique that may be employed in forming an HK/MG structure for a transistor device;

FIGS. 2A-2F depict various embodiments of various methods disclosed herein for forming semiconductor devices while preventing or reducing loss of active area and/or isolation regions;

FIGS. 3A-3C depict various embodiments of various methods disclosed herein for forming semiconductor devices by performing a wet acid etching process while preventing or reducing loss of active area and/or isolation regions; and

FIGS. 4A-4B depict illustrative TEM photographs of real-world devices that illustrate at least some examples of applying the dry and wet gate cap removal etching processes disclosed herein.

While the subject matter disclosed herein is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

The present subject matter will now be described with reference to the attached figures. Various structures, systems and devices are schematically depicted in the drawings for purposes of explanation only and so as to not obscure the present disclosure with details that are well known to those skilled in the art. Nevertheless, the attached drawings are included to describe and explain illustrative examples of the present disclosure. The words and phrases used herein should be understood and interpreted to have a meaning consistent with the understanding of those words and phrases by those skilled in the relevant art. No special definition of a term or phrase, i.e., a definition that is different from the ordinary and customary meaning as understood by those skilled in the art, is intended to be implied by consistent usage of the term or phrase herein. To the extent that a term or phrase is intended to have a special meaning, i.e., a meaning other than that understood by skilled artisans, such a special definition will be expressly set forth in the specification in a definitional manner that directly and unequivocally provides the special definition for the term or phrase.

The present disclosure is directed to various methods of forming semiconductor devices by performing a wet etching process that includes diluted HF acid while preventing or reducing loss of active area and/or isolation regions. As will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon a complete reading of the present application, the present method is applicable to a variety of technologies, e.g., NMOS, PMOS, CMOS, etc., and is readily applicable to a variety of devices, including, but not limited to, logic devices, memory devices, etc. With reference to the attached drawings, various illustrative embodiments of the methods and devices disclosed herein will now be described in more detail.

FIGS. 2A-2F depict an example of one illustrative method disclosed herein. As shown in FIG. 2A, the integrated circuit product 100 includes an illustrative PFET device 110P and an NFET device 110N that are formed in active regions of a semiconducting substrate 112. An illustrative trench isolation region 114 electrically isolates the devices 110P, 110N from one another. The substrate 112 may have a variety of configurations, such as the depicted bulk silicon configuration. The substrate 112 may also have a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) configuration that includes a bulk silicon layer, a buried insulation layer and an active layer, wherein semiconductor devices are formed in and above the active layer. Thus, the terms “substrate” or “semiconductor substrate” should be understood to cover all forms of semiconductor structures. The substrate 112 may also be made of materials other than silicon.

At the point of fabrication depicted in FIG. 2A, illustrative gate structures 116P, 116N have been formed for the PFET device 110P and NFET device 110N, respectively. In the depicted example, the isolation region 114 has an uneven or gouged upper surface due to the undesirable consumption of some of the isolation region 114 during previous processing operations. The gate structures 116P, 116N are generally comprised of a high-k gate insulation layer 118, one or more metal layers 120P, 120N, a layer of polysilicon 122 and gate cap layers 124P, 124N. Also depicted in FIG. 2A are illustrative sidewall spacers 126, e.g., silicon nitride. The number of metal layers and the types of metal layers employed in the PFET device 110P and NFET device 110N may be different. In general, the gate cap layer 124N on the NFET device 110N tends to be thicker than the gate cap layer 124P on the PFET device 110P. This situation typically occurs because an additional hard mask layer is formed on the NFET device 110N when silicon/germanium material (not shown) is grown in cavities (not shown) that were formed in the substrate 112 adjacent the gate structure 116P for the PFET device 110P. Also depicted in FIG. 2A is a relatively thin sacrificial layer of silicon dioxide 128 (e.g., about 5-7 nm) that has been conformally deposited across the product 100. The purpose of the sacrificial layer 128 is to protect the sidewall spacer 126 when the gate cap layers 124P, 124N are removed. The point of fabrication depicted in FIG. 2A corresponds approximately to the point of manufacture depicted in FIG. 1B.

FIG. 2B depicts the device after a sacrificial protection layer 132 has been formed across the product 100, e.g., an OPL (“Optical Planarization Layer”) layer. The sacrificial protection layer 132 may be comprised of a variety of different materials and it may be formed using a variety of known techniques. For example, the sacrificial protection layer 132 may be a layer of CHM701B, commercially available from Cheil Chemical Co., Ltd., HM8006 and HM8014, commercially available from JSR Corporation, or ODL-102, commercially available from ShinEtsu Chemical, Co., Ltd. Based upon existing work, the HM8006 has exhibited the best planarization behavior to date. In one illustrative embodiment, the sacrificial protection layer 132 may be made of an organic material. The sacrificial protection layer 132 may be formed by performing a spin-coating process and thereafter drying the sacrificial protection material. As indicated in FIG. 2B, the sacrificial protection layer 132 is formed to a sufficient thickness such that it overfills the space between the gate structures 116P, 116N.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2C, a dry etching process is performed on the sacrificial protection layer 132 to reduce its overall thickness such that, after the etching process, the upper surface 132S of the etched sacrificial protection layer 132 is below the upper surfaces 125P, 125N of the protective cap layers 124P, 124N, respectively, formed above all of the polysilicon gates 122. In the depicted example, the etching process is performed for a sufficient duration such that the upper surface 132S of the sacrificial protection layer 132 is below the upper surface 125P of the protective cap layer 124P on the PFET device 110P. The etching chemistry employed to etch the sacrificial protection layer 132 may be, for example, an argon/oxygen based etching process that is timed to achieve the final desired post-etch thickness of the sacrificial protection layer 132.

FIG. 2D depicts the product 100 after a dry, anisotropic etching process was performed to remove all of the horizontally positioned portions of the sacrificial layer of silicon dioxide 128. The etching process may be performed with a variety of etchant materials, e.g., CHF₃/He. This etching process operation exposes the upper surface 125P, 125N of the cap layers 124P, 124N, respectively, so that the protective cap layers may be subsequently removed. During this etching process, the sacrificial protection layer 132 provides additional protection of the substrate 112 and the isolation region 114. As depicted, it is anticipated that some of the sacrificial protection layer 132 may be consumed in this etching process. FIG. 2D depicts the situation where, after this etching process was performed on the sacrificial layer 128, the upper surface 132S1 of the sacrificial protection layer 132 has been lowered relative to the position of the surface 132S shown in FIG. 2C. Note that, unlike the prior art method discussed above, the horizontal portions of the sacrificial layer 128 positioned above the substrate 112 and the isolation region 114 are protected by the sacrificial protection layer 132 during this etching process.

FIG. 2E depicts the product after a dry etching process was performed to remove the protective cap layers 124P, 124N. The exact nature of this etching process may vary depending upon the particular application. In one example, the etching process performed to remove the protective cap layers 124P, 124N may comprise a main etching process (that is relatively aggressive) to etch through most of the cap layers, followed by performing a less aggressive over-etch process to complete the removal of the last portions of the cap layers 124P, 124N. As indicated in FIGS. 2D-2E, the sacrificial protection layer 132 is present at the beginning of the cap layer etching process but it may, in some applications, be completely consumed (as reflected in FIG. 2E) by the time the cap layers 124P, 124N are completely removed. In some applications, the sacrificial protection layer 132 may be substantially removed and the underlying portions of the sacrificial layer 128 may be attacked during this etching process, as reflected by the reduced-thickness sacrificial layer 128S. Although not depicted in the drawings, in other applications, after the cap layers 124P, 124N are removed, there still may be remnants of the sacrificial protection layer 132 positioned above the horizontal portions of the sacrificial layer 128.

FIG. 2F depicts the device after the sacrificial layer 128S has been removed from the product 100 and the product is ready for additional processing. In one embodiment, a plasma-strip process is performed to insure that any residual portions of the sacrificial protection layer 132 are removed from the product 100. Thereafter, the remaining portions of the sacrificial layer 128 may be removed using a variety of known techniques, e.g., by performing an HF stripping process. At the point of fabrication depicted in FIG. 2F, traditional fabrication processes may be performed to complete the formation of the product 100, e.g., the formation of various doped regions in the substrate 112, the formation of metal silicide regions in the polysilicon layers 122 of the gate structures 116P, 116N, the formation of various metallization layers (not shown), etc. In one illustrative embodiment, the various etching processes described above may be performed in a single process chamber without removing the substrate from the chamber wherein appropriate changes are made to the etch chemistry to etch the desired materials as described above. It should also be noted that, due to the use of the sacrificial protection layer 132 to protect portions of the sacrificial layer 128 during at least some of the etching processes described above, the horizontal portions of the sacrificial layer are better able to protect the substrate 112 and the isolation region 114 from attack as was described with reference to the prior art method disclosed above.

FIGS. 3A-3C depict another illustrative embodiment wherein a wet etching process that includes diluted HF acid may be performed to remove the protective cap layers 124P, 124N. FIG. 3A depicts the product 100 at a point in fabrication that corresponds to that depicted in FIG. 2D above. More specifically, after a dry, anisotropic etching process was performed to remove all of the horizontally positioned portions of the sacrificial layer of silicon dioxide 128. This etching process operation exposes the upper surface 125P, 125N of the cap layers 124P, 124N, respectively, so that the protective cap layers may be subsequently removed.

FIG. 3B depicts the product after a wet etching process that includes hot, diluted HF (DHF) acid as the etch chemistry was performed to remove the protective cap layers 124P, 124N. In one example, the concentration of HF in the DHF may fall within the range of about 1:500-1:10,000 and the etching process may be performed with the DHF at a temperature that falls within the range of about 20-100° C. In one particular example, the concentration of HF may be about 1:5000 and the etching process may be performed with the DHF at a temperature that of about 65° C. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art after a complete reading of the present application, other acids, such as HCl, in varying amounts, may also be included in the etching recipe without significantly changing the etching properties or characteristics of the DHF etch chemistry. However, in other embodiments, the wet etching process may be performed using only diluted HF acid as the etch chemistry. As compared to the dry etching process described above for removing the protective cap layers 124P, 124N, the wet DHF process described herein exhibits a relatively high etch selectivity between silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. For example, the wet DHF processes described herein exhibit an etch selectivity (SiN/SiO₂) of about 50:1, while the above-described dry etching process exhibits an etch selectivity (SiN/SiO₂) of at most about 3:1. By using the wet DHF etching process disclosed herein, the sacrificial layer 128, e.g., silicon dioxide, may be made relatively thinner. For example, when using an etching process that includes diluted HF acid as described herein, the thickness of the sacrificial layer 128 may be about 5 nm or less. In contrast, when using the above-described dry etching process, the thickness of the sacrificial layer 128 may be about 5-7 nm.

The exact parameters of the wet etching process described herein may be varied so as to accomplish desired process objectives. In general, the DHF process (i.e., an etch chemistry that includes diluted HF acid) described herein exhibits a relatively high etch selectivity (SiN/SiO₂) as the dilution of the HF acid increases. However, as the dilution of the HF acid increases, there is an undesirable consequence in that processing times increase. On the other hand, increasing the temperature of the wet DHF process described herein has the beneficial results of both increasing the etch selectivity (SiN/SiO₂) and decreasing the processing time.

The above-described wet DHF process provides many benefits as it relates to the removal of the protective cap layers 124P, 124N. More specifically, due to the relatively high etch selectivity (SiN/SiO₂) of the wet DHF process described herein, the undesirable consumption of the portions of the sacrificial silicon dioxide layer 128 positioned on the outside of the sidewall spacers 126 is reduced or eliminated. Thus, more of the sacrificial silicon dioxide layer 128 remains in place to protect the sidewall spacers 126 during the gate cap etching process. Accordingly, there is less chance of excessive “pull-back” of the sidewall spacers 126 (consumption of some of the height of the spacers 126) that might lead to undesirable exposure of the sidewalls of the polysilicon material 122.

As indicated in FIGS. 3A-3B, the sacrificial protection layer 132 is present at the beginning of the wet DHF process described herein but it may, in some applications, be completely consumed (as reflected in FIG. 3B) by the time the cap layers 124P, 124N are completely removed. In some applications, the sacrificial protection layer 132 may be substantially removed during the wet DHF gate cap removal process and the underlying portions of the sacrificial layer 128 may be exposed. However, due to the relatively high etch selectivity (SiN/SiO₂) of the wet DHF process described herein, there will be little consumption of any exposed portions of the sacrificial silicon dioxide layer 128 due to the gate cap etching process, even if the sacrificial protection layer 132 is completely consumed. Although not depicted in the drawings, in other applications, after the cap layers 124P, 124N are removed, there still may be remnants of the sacrificial protection layer 132 positioned above the horizontal portions of the sacrificial layer 128. In such cases, a plasma-strip process is performed to insure that any residual portions of the sacrificial protection layer 132 are removed from the product 100. After removal of the sacrificial protection layer 132, the product looks as depicted in FIG. 3B.

FIG. 3C depicts the product after the sacrificial layer 128 has been removed from the product 100 and the product is ready for additional processing. The sacrificial layer 128 may be removed using a variety of known techniques, e.g., by performing an HF stripping process. At the point of fabrication depicted in FIG. 3C, traditional fabrication processes may be performed to complete the formation of the product 100, e.g., the formation of various doped regions in the substrate 112, the formation of metal silicide regions in the polysilicon layers 122 of the gate structures 116P, 116N, the formation of various metallization layers (not shown), etc.

FIGS. 4A-4B depict illustrative TEM photographs of real-world devices that illustrate at least some examples of applying the dry and wet gate cap removal etching processes disclosed herein on both PMOS and NMOS devices. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, while the dry etching process disclosed herein provides an improvement relative to prior art processing techniques, the wet etching process disclosed herein significantly reduces unwanted consumption of the sidewall spacers while at the same time protecting the underlying substrate and isolation regions from attack during the gat cap layer removal process.

The particular embodiments disclosed above are illustrative only, as the invention may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. For example, the process steps set forth above may be performed in a different order. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

forming a gate structure of a transistor above a surface of a semiconductor substrate, said gate structure being comprised of at least one layer of metal, a silicon-containing layer of material positioned above said at least one layer of metal and a protective cap layer positioned above said silicon-containing layer of material;

forming a sidewall spacer proximate said gate structure;

after forming said sidewall spacer, forming a sacrificial layer of material above said protective cap layer, above said sidewall spacer and above said substrate;

forming a sacrificial protection layer above said sacrificial layer;

reducing a thickness of said sacrificial protection layer such that, after said reduction, an upper surface of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer is positioned at a level that is below a level of an upper surface of said protective cap layer;

with said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer in position, performing a first etching process to remove said sacrificial layer from above said protective cap layer to thereby expose said protective cap layer for further processing;

performing a wet acid etching process that includes diluted HF acid to remove said protective cap layer; and

after removing said protective cap layer, performing at least one process operation to remove at least one of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer or said sacrificial layer from above said surface of said substrate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said sidewall spacer and said protective cap layer are comprised of silicon nitride, said sacrificial layer is comprised of silicon dioxide and said layer of silicon-containing material is a layer of polysilicon.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said sacrificial protection layer is comprised of one of CHM701B (commercially available from Cheil Chemical Co., Ltd.), HM8006 or HM8014 (both commercially available from JSR Corporation) or ODL-102 (commercially available from ShinEtsu Chemical, Co., Ltd.).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein performing said wet acid etching process to remove said protective cap layer comprises performing said wet acid etching process with an etch chemistry that includes a diluted HF acid concentration that falls within the range of 1:500-1:10000.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein performing said wet acid etching process to remove said protective cap layer comprises performing said wet acid etching process at a temperature that falls within the range of about 20-100° C.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing said at least one process operation to remove at least one of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer or said sacrificial layer from above said surface of said substrate comprises performing at least one of a plasma stripping process and an HF acid stripping process.

7. A method, comprising:

forming a gate structure of a transistor above a surface of a semiconductor substrate, said gate structure being comprised of at least one layer of metal, a silicon-containing layer of material positioned above said at least one layer of metal and a protective cap layer positioned above said silicon-containing layer of material;

forming a sidewall spacer such that it contacts a sidewall of said gate structure;

after forming said sidewall spacer, forming a sacrificial layer of material on an upper surface of said protective cap layer, on said sidewall spacer and on said surface of said substrate;

forming a sacrificial protection layer on said sacrificial layer;

reducing a thickness of said sacrificial protection layer such that, after said reduction, an upper surface of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer is positioned at a level that is below a level of said upper surface of said protective cap layer;

with said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer in position, performing a first etching process to remove said sacrificial layer from above said protective cap layer to thereby expose said protective cap layer for further processing;

performing a wet acid etching process to remove said protective cap layer, wherein said wet acid etching process is performed with an etch chemistry that includes a diluted HF acid concentration that falls within the range of 1:500-1:10000; and

after removing said protective cap layer, performing at least one process operation to remove at least one of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer or said sacrificial layer from above said surface of said substrate.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said sacrificial protection layer is comprised of one of CHM701B (commercially available from Cheil Chemical Co., Ltd.), HM8006 or HM8014 (both commercially available from JSR Corporation) or ODL-102 (commercially available from ShinEtsu Chemical, Co., Ltd.).

9. The method of claim 7, wherein performing said wet acid etching process to remove said protective cap layer comprises performing said wet acid etching process at a temperature that falls within the range of about 20-100° C.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein performing said at least one process operation to remove at least one of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer or said sacrificial layer from above said surface of said substrate comprises performing at least one of a plasma stripping process and an HF acid stripping process.

11. A method, comprising:

forming a gate structure of a transistor above a surface of a semiconducting substrate, said gate structure being comprised of at least one layer of metal, a layer of polysilicon positioned above said at least one layer of metal and a protective cap layer positioned above said layer of polysilicon, said protective cap layer being comprised of silicon nitride;

forming a sidewall spacer such that it contacts a sidewall of said gate structure, said sidewall spacer being comprised of silicon nitride;

after forming said sidewall spacer, forming a sacrificial layer of silicon dioxide on an upper surface of said protective cap layer, on said sidewall spacer and on said surface of said substrate;

forming a sacrificial protection layer on said sacrificial layer;

reducing a thickness of said sacrificial protection layer such that, after said reduction, an upper surface of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer is positioned at a level that is below a level of said upper surface of said protective cap layer;

with said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer in position, performing a first etching process to remove said sacrificial layer from above said protective cap layer to thereby expose said protective cap layer for further processing;

performing a wet dilute HF acid etching process at a temperature that falls within the range of about 20-100° C. to remove said protective cap layer, wherein an HF acid concentration falls within the range of 1:500-1:10000; and

after removing said protective cap layer, performing at least one process operation to remove at least one of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer or said sacrificial layer from above said surface of said substrate.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said sacrificial protection layer is comprised of one of CHM701B (commercially available from Cheil Chemical Co., Ltd.), HM8006 or HM8014 (both commercially available from JSR Corporation) or ODL-102 (commercially available from ShinEtsu Chemical, Co., Ltd.).

13. The method of claim 11, wherein performing said at least one process operation to remove at least one of said reduced-thickness sacrificial protection layer or said sacrificial layer from above said surface of said substrate comprises performing at least one of a plasma stripping process and an HF acid stripping process.