Hemispherical grained silicon on conductive nitride
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorSteven T. Harshfield
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a method of growing hemispherical grained silicon (HSG silicon) over a conductive seed layer. In a preferred embodiment, a contact window is etched in an insulating layer to expose a circuit node, such as an active area of a substrate or a contact plug leading to an active area A layer of titanium nitride is deposited over the insulating layer and into the contact window. The titanium nitride (TiN) serves as the seed layer for HSG silicon growth to follow. Polysilicon is deposited and grows around nucleation sites on the TiN surface. The TiN provides both electrical and mechanical support for the HSG silicon. Additionally, as TiN is an effective diffusion barrier, the HSG silicon may be heavily doped without undue risk of dopant diffusion to the active area.
Claims15
A method of forming a plate of a capacitor in an integrated circuit, the method comprising the steps of:
- etching a contact window through an insulating layer of the integrated circuit;
- depositing a conductive nitride layer over the insulating layer and into the contact window, the conductive nitride layer electrically contacting an active area of an underlying substrate;
- and
- forming a hemispherical grained silicon layer over and directly contacting the conductive nitride layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.