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US 7,923,364 B2Granted
Tunnel dielectric comprising nitrogen for use with a semiconductor device and a process for forming the device
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorAkira Goda
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method used during semiconductor device fabrication comprises forming at least two types of transistors. A first transistor type may comprise a CMOS transistor comprising gate oxide and having a wide active area and/or a long channel, and the second transistor type may comprise a NAND comprising tunnel oxide and having a narrow active area and/or short gate length. The transistors are exposed to a nitridation ambient. Various process embodiments and completed structures are disclosed.
Claims9
A method of semiconductor device manufacture, comprising:
- forming a blanket conductive floating gate material over a first region having a gate dielectric covering an active area comprising a first width and over a second region having a tunnel dielectric covering an active area comprising a second width;
- patterning the conductive floating gate material over the second region and leaving the conductive floating gate material over the first region unpatterned;
- then
- simultaneously exposing the first and second regions to a nitridizing ambient to result in a higher nitrogen concentration at a center of the tunnel dielectric than at a center of the gate dielectric.
1 more element
A method of semiconductor device manufacture, comprising:
- forming a first gate dielectric having a first thickness over a semiconductor;
- forming a second gate dielectric having a second thickness which is less than the first thickness over the semiconductor;
- forming a tunnel dielectric having a third thickness which is equal to or less than the second thickness;
- forming a blanket conductive material over the first and second gate dielectric and over the tunnel dielectric;
- etching the conductive material over the tunnel dielectric and leaving the conductive material over the first and second gate dielectric unetched;
- exposing the tunnel dielectric and the conductive material over the first and second gate dielectric to a nitridation ambient to result in a higher nitrogen concentration at a center of the tunnel dielectric than at a center of the gate dielectric.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.