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US 2026/0090347 A1Published application
Gap filling method in semiconductor manufacturing process
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsYi-Hsiu CHEN, Shao-An WANG, Kenichi SANO, Andrew Joseph KELLY
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Abstract
A method for filling a gap in a semiconductor structure includes: forming the gap between two raised portions of the semiconductor structure, the gap having a bottom surface and two lateral surfaces each extending upwardly from the bottom surface along one of the raised portions to terminate at an upper surface of a corresponding one of the raised portions; and forming a filler element in the gap in a bottom-up manner that avoids the filler element being formed laterally.
Claims20
A method for filling a gap in a semiconductor structure, comprising:
- forming the gap between two raised portions of the semiconductor structure, the two raised portions respectively having two upper surfaces, the gap having a bottom surface and two lateral surfaces each extending upwardly from the bottom surface along one of the two raised portions to terminate at a corresponding one of the two upper surfaces;
- and
- forming a filler element in the gap by:
- performing a deposition process to deposit a filling material which has a first portion on the bottom surface of the gap, a second portion on the two lateral surfaces of the gap, and a third portion on the two upper surfaces of the two raised portions;
- performing an etching back process to etch back the filling material, so as to etch back the first portion and to remove the second portion and an overhang part of the third portion which overhangs the gap, to thereby obtain an etched back first portion and an etched back third portion;
- forming a masking layer in the gap to cover the etched back first portion while exposing the etched back third portion;
- performing a first removing process to remove the etched back third portion;
- and
- performing a second removing process to remove the masking layer.
6 more elements
A method for filling a gap in a semiconductor structure, comprising:
- forming the gap between two raised portions of the semiconductor structure, the two raised portions respectively having two upper surfaces, the gap having a bottom surface and two lateral surfaces each extending upwardly from the bottom surface along one of the two raised portions to terminate at a corresponding one of the two upper surfaces;
- and
- forming a filler element in the gap by:
- performing a deposition process to deposit a filling material which includes a metal-containing material, and which has a first portion on the bottom surface of the gap, a second portion on the two lateral surfaces of the gap, and a third portion on the two upper surfaces of the two raised portions;
- and
- performing an etching back process to etch back the filling material, so as to etch back the first portion and to remove the second portion and a part of the third portion located in position corresponding to and above the gap,
- wherein the second portion is removed to expose the two lateral surfaces of the gap after the etching back process.
4 more elements
A method for filling a gap in a semiconductor structure, comprising:
- forming the gap between two raised portions of the semiconductor structure, the two raised portions respectively having two upper surfaces, the gap having a bottom surface and two lateral surfaces each extending upwardly from the bottom surface along one of the two raised portions to terminate at a corresponding one of the two upper surfaces, each of the two raised portions including a stack which has channel layers and sacrificial layers disposed to alternate with the channel layers;
- performing a deposition process to deposit a filling material which has a first portion on the bottom surface of the gap, a second portion on the two lateral surfaces of the gap, and a third portion on the two upper surfaces of the two raised portions, until a height of the first portion is no longer increased;
- and
- performing an etching back process to etch back the filling material until the second portion and an overhang part of the third portion which overhangs the gap are removed, wherein:
- each of the two raised portions includes an upper segment on the stack, the upper segment including a dummy gate part and two gate spacers disposed at two opposite sides of the dummy gate part;
- the semiconductor structure further includes a semiconductor substrate, and a semiconductor portion which is formed to interconnect each of the two raised portions to the semiconductor substrate;
- a surface of the semiconductor portion, which is exposed from the two raised portions, serves as the bottom surface of the gap;
- and
- each of the two lateral surfaces of the gap extends from the surface of the semiconductor portion along side surfaces of the stack and the upper segment of a corresponding one of the two raised portions to terminate at an upper surface of the upper segment of the corresponding one of the two raised portions.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.