Barrier-free approach for forming contact plugs
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChing-Yi Chen, Sheng-Hsuan Lin, Wei-Yip Loh, Hung-Hsu Chen, Chih-Wei Chang
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Abstract
A method includes etching a dielectric layer of a substrate to form an opening in the dielectric layer, forming a metal layer extending into the opening, performing an anneal process, so that a bottom portion of the metal layer reacts with a semiconductor region underlying the metal layer to form a source/drain region, performing a plasma treatment process on the substrate using a process gas including hydrogen gas and a nitrogen-containing gas to form a silicon-and-nitrogen-containing layer, and depositing a metallic material on the silicon-and-nitrogen-containing layer.
Claims20
An integrated circuit structure comprising:
- a dielectric layer;
- a metal ring contacting sidewalls of the dielectric layer;
- a metal region encircled by the metal ring;
- and
- a silicon-and-nitrogen rich layer between the metal ring and the metal region, wherein a silicon atomic percentage in the silicon-and-nitrogen rich layer is higher than silicon atomic percentages in both of the metal ring and the metal region, and a first nitrogen atomic percentage in the silicon-and-nitrogen rich layer is higher than second nitrogen atomic percentages in the metal ring and the metal region.
An integrated circuit structure comprising:
- a semiconductor region;
- a gate stack on the semiconductor region;
- a source/drain region on a side of the gate stack;
- a source/drain silicide region over and contacting the source/drain region;
- a silicon nitride layer comprising a first portion over and contacting the source/drain silicide region;
- and
- a contact plug over and contacting the silicon nitride layer.
An integrated circuit structure comprising:
- a conductive layer;
- a plurality of dielectric layers over and contacting the conductive layer;
- a silicon nitride layer comprising:
- a sidewall portion contacting sidewalls of the plurality of dielectric layers;
- and
- a bottom portion overlapping and contacting the conductive layer;
- and
- a metallic region encircled by the silicon nitride layer, wherein the metallic region is formed of a homogeneous material, and wherein the metallic region is separated from the conductive layer by the bottom portion of the silicon nitride layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.