Silicide formation and associated devices

A method comprising:

• providing a semiconductor substrate having spaced source and drain regions therein;
• forming a gate structure interposed between the source and drain regions, the gate structure having a dummy gate electrode therein;
• depositing a first inter-level dielectric (ILD) layer over the gate structure;
• removing the dummy gate electrode to form a trench in the gate structure;
• depositing a metal layer into the trench to form a metal gate electrode therein;
• removing a top portion of the metal gate electrode to form an opening in the gate structure;
• forming a hard mask layer in the opening;
• removing the first ILD layer to expose the source and drain regions;
• forming silicide layers on the respective source and drain regions;
• removing the hard mask layer;
• and
• forming source and drain contacts, each source and drain contact being conductively coupled to a respective one of the silicide layers.

A method comprising:

• providing a semiconductor substrate;
• forming a gate structure disposed on the semiconductor substrate, the forming including:
• forming a high-k gate dielectric;
• forming a dummy gate electrode above the high-k gate dielectric;
• and
• forming spacers on sidewalls of the gate structure;
• depositing a first inter-level dielectric (ILD) layer over the gate structure;
• removing the dummy gate electrode to form a trench in the gate structure, the spacers partially defining the trench after the removing the dummy gate electrode;
• depositing a metal layer into the trench to form a metal gate electrode therein;
• removing a top portion of the metal gate electrode to form an opening in the gate structure, the spacers partially defining the opening after the removing the top portion of the metal gate electrode;
• forming a hard mask layer in the opening;
• removing the first ILD layer to expose source and drain regions;
• forming silicide layers on the respective source and drain regions;
• removing the hard mask layer;
• and
• forming source and drain contacts, each source and drain contact being conductively coupled to a respective one of the silicide layers.