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US 2003/0199104 A1Published application
Material combinations for tunnel junction cap layer, tunnel junction hard mask and tunnel junction stack seed layer in MRAM processing
AssigneeInfineon Technologies North America Corp.
InventorsRainer Leuschner, George Stojakovic, Xian J. Ning
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Abstract
A resistive memory device (110) and method of manufacturing thereof comprising a cap layer (140) and hard mask layer (142) disposed over magnetic stacks (114), wherein either the cap layer (140) or hard mask layer (142) comprise WN. A seed layer (136) disposed beneath the magnetic stacks (114) may also be comprised of WN. The use of the material WN improves etch process selectivity during the manufacturing process.
Claims27
A method of fabricating a resistive semiconductor memory device, comprising:
- providing a workpiece;
- forming a first inter-level dielectric over the workpiece;
- disposing a plurality of first conductive lines within the first inter-level dielectric;
- forming a seed layer over the first conductive lines;
- forming a first magnetic layer over the seed layer;
- forming a tunnel barrier layer over the first magnetic stack;
- depositing a second magnetic layer over the tunnel barrier;
- depositing a cap layer over the second magnetic stack layer;
- depositing a hard mask material over the cap layer;
- patterning the hard mask material to form a hard mask;
- and
- using the patterned hard mask to pattern the cap layer, second magnetic layer, and tunnel barrier layer to form a plurality of tunnel junctions, wherein at least one of depositing a cap layer, depositing a hard mask material or depositing a seed layer comprise depositing WN.
9 more elements
A resistive semiconductor memory device, comprising:
- a plurality of first conductive lines;
- a seed layer disposed over at least a portion of the first conductive lines;
- a first magnetic layer disposed over the seed layer;
- a tunnel barrier disposed over the first magnetic layer;
- a second magnetic layer disposed over the tunnel barrier;
- and
- a cap layer disposed over the second magnetic layer, wherein at least one of the seed layer and the cap layer comprise WN.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.