The above and/or other aspects and advantages will become more apparent and more readily appreciated from the following detailed description of example embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments, however, may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to example embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, the thicknesses of layers and regions may be exaggerated for clarity.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on,” “connected to,” “electrically connected to,” or “coupled to” another component, it may be directly on, connected to, electrically connected to, or coupled to the other component or intervening components may be present. In contrast, when a component is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly connected to,” “directly electrically connected to,” or “directly coupled to” another component, there are no intervening components present. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers, and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers, and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer, and/or section from another element, component, region, layer, and/or section. For example, a first element, component, region, layer, and/or section could be termed a second element, component, region, layer, and/or section without departing from the teachings of example embodiments.
Spatially relative terms, such as “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper,” and the like may be used herein for ease of description to describe the relationship of one component and/or feature to another component and/or feature, or other component(s) and/or feature(s), as illustrated in the drawings. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” and/or “including,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components.
Example embodiments are described herein with reference to cross-section illustrations that are schematic illustrations of idealized embodiments (and intermediate structures). As such, variations from the shapes of the illustrations as a result, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, are to be expected. Thus, example embodiments should not be construed as limited to the particular shapes of regions illustrated herein, but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing. For example, an implanted region illustrated as a rectangle may have rounded or curved features and/or a gradient of implant concentration at its edges rather than a binary change from implanted to non-implanted region. Likewise, a buried region formed by implantation may result in some implantation in the region between the buried region and the surface through which the implantation takes place. Thus, the regions illustrated in the figures are schematic in nature and their shapes are not intended to illustrate the actual shape of a region of a device and are not intended to limit the scope of example embodiments.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which example embodiments belong. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
Reference will now be made to example embodiments, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals may refer to like components throughout.
Referring to
An isolation layer 102 may be formed between the active fin or fins 100a. The isolation layer 102 may have a height lower than that of the active fin or fins 100a. In example embodiments, the active fin or fins 100a may have a height of about 80 nm to about 150 nm from an upper face of the isolation layer 102 and/or may have a width below about 100 nm. An upper edge portion of the active fin or fins 100a may be curved so that a punch-through of a channel may be prevented and/or that a gate insulation layer 104 may be uniformly formed on the active fin or fins 100a.
The gate insulation layer 104 may be formed on the active fin or fins 100a. The gate insulation layer 104 may include an oxide which is formed by thermally oxidizing a surface of the active fin or fins 100a.
A plurality of gate electrodes 106 may be formed on the gate insulation layer 104. The gate electrodes 106 may extend in a direction substantially perpendicular to a direction in which the active fin or fins 100a extends. The gate electrodes 106 may include, for example, polysilicon doped with impurities or a metal having a work function higher than that of polysilicon.
Generally, a fin transistor, which may be formed on active-fin-like example embodiments, may have a threshold voltage lower than that of a planar transistor or a recessed transistor. The threshold voltage of the fin transistor may be increased by forming the gate electrodes 106 using a conductive material having a high work function (i.e., energy needed to transport electrons, ions, and/or molecules from the inside of one medium into an adjoining medium).
The gate electrodes 106 may include one or more cell gate electrodes 106a and/or one or more dummy gate electrodes 106b. The one or more cell gate electrodes 106a may serve as a gate electrode of a transistor (or gate electrodes of transistors) included in a unit cell of the DRAM device. The one or more dummy electrodes 106b may be formed so that a loading effect may be decreased when the one or more cell gate electrodes 106a are formed by patterning a conductive layer. Thus, the one or more dummy electrodes 106b may be formed adjacent to a most outer cell gate electrode 106a, but may not be included in the unit cell.
One or more source/drain regions 108 may be formed at an upper portion of the active fin or fins 100a adjacent to the gate electrodes 106. Impurities may be doped into the one or more source/drain regions 108. In example embodiments, N-type impurities such as phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), etc., may be doped into the one or more source/drain regions 108. The one or more source/drain regions 108 may have a lightly doped drain (LDD) structure including, for example, a heavily doped region and/or a lightly doped region.
A first insulating interlayer 110 may be formed on the semiconductor substrate 100 to cover the gate electrodes 106. The first insulating interlayer 110 may include, for example, silicon oxide.
One or more first plugs 112 may be formed through the first insulating interlayer 110 to make contact with the one or more source/drain regions 108. The one or more first plugs 112 may include, for example, polysilicon doped with impurities or a metal. In example embodiments, a plurality of the first plugs 112 may be formed. The first plugs 112 may include one or more source contact plugs and/or one or more drain contact plugs. The one or more source contact plugs may make contact with a source region(s) of the one or more source/drain regions 108 and/or the drain contact plug may make contact with a drain region(s) of the one or more source/drain regions 108.
A second insulating interlayer 114 may be formed on the first insulating interlayer 110 and/or the first plug 112. One or more bit line contact plugs 116 may be formed through the second insulating interlayer 114 to be electrically connected to the one or more source contact plugs. Additionally, a bit line 118 may be formed on the second insulating interlayer 114 to be electrically connected to the one or more bit line contact plugs 116.
A third insulating interlayer 120 may be formed on the second insulating interlayer 114 to cover the bit line 118. One or more storage node contact plugs 122 may be formed through the third insulating interlayer 120 to be electrically connected to the one or more drain contact plugs. The one or more storage node contact plugs 122 may include, for example, polysilicon doped with impurities or a metal.
One or more capacitors 130 may be formed on the third insulating interlayer 120 to be electrically connected to the one or more storage node contact plugs 122. The one or more capacitors 130 may have a cylindrical shape(s). The one or more capacitors 130 may include a lower electrode 124, a dielectric layer 126, and/or an upper electrode 128 that may be sequentially stacked on the third insulating interlayer 120.
A fourth insulating interlayer 132 may be formed on the third insulating interlayer 120 to cover the one or more capacitors 130.
One or more second plugs 140 may be formed through the first insulating interlayer 110 and/or the second insulating interlayer 114 to make contact with the active region. The one or more second plugs 140 may make contact with the active region, and thereby may be electrically connected to a body of the transistor included in the unit cell. Thus, electric signals from the one or more second plugs 140 may be applied to the body of the transistor formed in the cell region.
One or more third plugs 142 may be formed through the first insulating interlayer 110 and the second insulating interlayer 114 to make contact with the one or more dummy gate electrodes 106b.
A conductive wire 144 may be formed on the second insulating interlayer 114 to be electrically connected to the one or more second plugs 140 and/or the one or more third plugs 142. The conductive wire 144 may include, for example, a metal. In example embodiments, the conductive wire 144 may be electrically connected to a terminal that is grounded.
The third insulating interlayer 120 may cover the one or more second plugs 140, the one or more third plugs 142, the conductive wire 144, and/or the second insulating interlayer 114. The fourth insulating interlayer 132 may cover the one or more second plugs 140, the one or more third plugs 142, the conductive wire 144, and/or the third insulating interlayer 120.
Threshold voltage characteristics and/or leakage current characteristics of the fin transistor in the DRAM device may not change much even when a bias voltage applied to the body of the fin transistor may change. Thus, the bias voltage may not need to be applied to the body of the fin transistor. However, a short channel effect may not affect the fin transistor much, so that the fin transistor may have a relatively small threshold voltage distribution in comparison to the planar transistor and/or the recessed transistor. Thus, the DRAM device including the fin transistor may stably operate without applying the bias voltage to the body of the fin transistor.
When the conductive wire 144 may be connected to the terminal that is grounded, the bodies of the one or more cell gate electrodes 106a and/or the one or more dummy gate electrodes 106b may be maintained in the ground level. Thus, a specific voltage may not need to be applied to the body of the fin transistor. Accordingly, a voltage generator that may generate a bias voltage applied to the body may not be required.
Referring to
At S200, when a reading operation may be performed in the DRAM device, the WLS signal may be enabled to apply a first voltage to the gate electrode 106 of the fin transistor included in the selected cell, thereby forming a channel. The data stored in the capacitor 130 may be read by detecting a change in a voltage level of the bit line 118. A bias voltage may not be applied to the body of the fin transistor and/or the body of the fin transistor may be in the ground level.
After the writing and/or reading operations may be performed or when the DRAM device may be in a stand-by state, the WLS signal may be disabled to apply a second voltage to the gate electrode 106 of the fin transistor, thereby turning off the channel. A bias voltage may not be applied to the body of the fin transistor and/or the body of the fin transistor may be in the ground level.
In a related art planar or recessed transistor, a threshold voltage and an off-leakage current may be varied according to a bias voltage applied to a body of a transistor or a bulk substrate. Thus, when reading and/or writing operations are performed in a memory cell, a negative bias voltage is usually applied to the bulk substrate so that a distribution of the threshold voltage and the off-leakage current may be decreased.
However, in the fin transistor, a threshold voltage and an off-leakage current may not vary much according to a bias voltage applied to a body of a transistor and/or a bulk substrate. Thus, a bias voltage may not need to be applied to the body of the transistor when the DRAM device including the fin transistor serving as a cell transistor may be in the stand-by state or when reading and/or writing operations may be performed in the DRAM device. Additionally, the body of the transistor may be in the ground level by connecting the body to a ground, without an additional voltage being applied. As a result, peripheral circuits for applying the bias voltage to the body of the fin transistor may not be formed in the peripheral/core region, thereby increasing an integration degree of the DRAM device.
Hereinafter, characteristics of a conventional planar and/or recessed transistor are compared with those of a fin transistor according to example embodiments.
In
Referring to
Thus, a bias voltage may not necessarily be applied to the body of the fin transistor in order to decrease a distribution of the threshold voltage.
In
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In
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In
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In
As discussed above, the total leakage current of the fin transistor in the off-state hardly may change according to the bias voltage applied to the body of the fin transistor. Thus, in a DRAM device including the fin transistor, an additional bias voltage may not necessarily be applied to the body of the fin transistor in order to reduce the total leakage current.
In
Referring to
As discussed above, a threshold voltage and a leakage current of the fin transistor when the bias voltage is about 0 V may not be much different from those when the bias voltage is about −0.1 V to about −0.8 V.
Additionally, the data retention time when the bias voltage is about 0 V may be increased in comparison with that when the bias voltage has a negative value.
Thus, a DRAM device including the fin transistor according to example embodiments may stably perform writing and/or reading operations. Particularly, the DRAM device may stably perform writing and/or reading operations by electrically connecting a body of the fin transistor to a ground without applying an additional bias voltage to the body of the fin transistor.
According to example embodiments, a bias voltage may not need to be applied to a body of a transistor, and thus a voltage generator may not be required to operate a DRAM device. Thus, the DRAM device may have a high integration degree. Additionally, simple signals may be used when the DRAM device is operated, thereby decreasing operational failures.
The foregoing is illustrative of example embodiments and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although a few example embodiments have been described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in example embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of example embodiments. In the claims, means-plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function, and not only structural equivalents but also equivalent structures. Therefore, it is to be understood that the foregoing is illustrative of example embodiments and is not to be construed as limited to the specific example embodiments disclosed, and that modifications to the disclosed example embodiments, as well as other example embodiments, are intended to be included within the scope of example embodiments.
While example embodiments have been particularly shown and described, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2006-0098380 | Oct 2006 | KR | national |