Transistor contacts and methods of forming the same
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsHung-Yu Yen, Keng-Chu Lin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an embodiment, a method includes: forming a sacrificial spacer in a contact opening, the contact opening exposing a source/drain region; depositing a spacer layer on a sidewall of the sacrificial spacer and on a top surface of the source/drain region; forming a protective dielectric on the spacer layer and in the contact opening; removing the sacrificial spacer to form a recess adjacent the spacer layer; and forming a dielectric cap in an upper portion of the recess by redepositing a material of the protective dielectric and a material of the spacer layer in the upper portion of the recess, the dielectric cap sealing a lower portion of the recess to form a void.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- patterning a contact opening through an inter-layer dielectric to expose a source/drain region;
- forming a sacrificial spacer and a protective dielectric in the contact opening, the sacrificial spacer disposed between the protective dielectric and the inter-layer dielectric;
- removing the sacrificial spacer to form a recess between the protective dielectric and the inter-layer dielectric;
- and
- forming a dielectric cap in an upper portion of the recess by redepositing sputtered portions of the protective dielectric and the inter-layer dielectric in the upper portion of the recess, the dielectric cap sealing a lower portion of the recess to form a void.
A method comprising:
- patterning a contact opening through an inter-layer dielectric to expose a source/drain region;
- forming a sacrificial spacer, a spacer layer, and a protective dielectric in the contact opening, the spacer layer disposed between the protective dielectric and the sacrificial spacer;
- removing the sacrificial spacer to form a recess between the spacer layer and the inter-layer dielectric;
- and
- forming a dielectric cap in an upper portion of the recess by performing a plasma treatment process, wherein the plasma treatment process comprises bombarding the protective dielectric, the spacer layer, and the inter-layer dielectric with ions and with radicals.
A method comprising:
- depositing an inter-layer dielectric over a gate structure and a source/drain region;
- patterning a contact opening through the inter-layer dielectric to expose the source/drain region;
- forming a sacrificial spacer and a protective dielectric in the contact opening, the sacrificial spacer disposed between the protective dielectric and the gate structure;
- removing the sacrificial spacer to form a recess between the protective dielectric and the gate structure;
- forming a dielectric cap in an upper portion of the recess by performing a plasma treatment process, wherein the plasma treatment process redeposits sputtered portions of the protective dielectric and the inter-layer dielectric, the dielectric cap sealing a lower portion of the recess to form a void;
- and
- replacing the protective dielectric with a source/drain contact, the void disposed between the source/drain contact and the gate structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.