Method for Improving Surface of Semiconductor Device
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsJung-Tang Wu, Yu-Jen Chien, Szu-Hua Wu, Chin-Szu Lee, Yao-Shien Huang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes forming a first top electrode (TE) layer over a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) layer and performing a smoothing treatment on the first TE layer. The smoothing treatment is performed in situ after the forming first TE layer. The smoothing treatment removes spike point defects from the first TE layer. Additional TE layers may be formed over the first TE layer.
Claims20
A method of forming a magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cell, the method comprising:
- forming a bottom electrode layer;
- forming a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) layer over the bottom electrode layer;
- forming a first top electrode (TE) layer over the MTJ layer, the forming the first TE layer comprising:
- forming a first sublayer of a first metal using a first bias power;
- and
- forming a second sublayer of the first metal using a second bias power, wherein the second bias power is greater than the first bias power;
- forming one or more additional TE layers over the first TE layer;
- and
- after forming the TE layers, patterning the TE layers, the MTJ layer, and the bottom electrode layer to form a magnetic random access memory (MRAM) cell.
A method of forming a semiconductor structure, the method comprising;
- forming a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) layer over a bottom electrode;
- forming a top electrode over the MTJ layer, wherein the forming the top electrode comprises:
- forming a first conductive layer with a first conductive material, wherein the first conductive layer is in physical contact with the MTJ layer and is free of spike points;
- forming a second conductive layer with a second conductive material different from the first conductive material, wherein the second conductive layer is in physical contact with the first conductive layer;
- and
- forming a third conductive layer with a third conductive material different from both the first conductive material and the second conductive material, wherein the third conductive layer is in physical contact with the second conductive layer;
- and
- surrounding the top electrode with a dielectric material in direct physical contact with sidewalls of the first conductive layer, the second conductive layer, and the third conductive layer.
A method of forming a semiconductor device, the method comprising:
- forming a first conductive layer in physical contact with a top surface of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) layer, wherein the first conductive layer comprises titanium nitride, and wherein the first conductive layer is free of spike points;
- forming a second conductive layer in physical contact with a top surface of the first conductive layer, wherein the second conductive layer comprises tantalum;
- and
- forming a third conductive layer in physical contact with a top surface of the second conductive layer, wherein the third conductive layer comprises tantalum nitride, wherein after the forming the third conductive layer sidewalls of the first conductive layer, the second conductive layer, and the third conductive layer are all in physical contact with a dielectric material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.