The present invention, which provides a technique for providing an increased dopant dose to a thin poly-Si gate, while optimizing the dose within the deep source/drain regions as well as the resultant CMOS structure that is formed by the same, will now be described in greater detail by referring to the following discussion and drawings that accompany the present application. It is noted that the drawings of the present application are provided for illustrative purposes and, as such, they are not necessarily drawn to scale.
In the description and drawings that follow, a preferred embodiment of the present invention is described and illustrated in which at least one nFET and at least one pFET are formed onto a surface of a semiconductor substrate. Although such description and illustration are made, the present invention is not limited to forming such a CMOS structure. Instead, the present invention can be used in forming a CMOS structure including at least one pFET or at least one nFET on a surface of the substrate.
Reference is made to
Reference is first made to
The semiconductor substrate 12 of the initial structure 10 includes any semiconducting material including, for example, Si, SiGe, SiGeC, SiC, Ge alloys, GaAs, InAs, InP and other III/V or II/VI compound semiconductors. In addition to these listed types of semiconducting materials, the present invention also contemplates cases in which the semiconductor substrate 12 is a layered semiconductor such as, for example, Si/SiGe, Si/SiC, silicon-on-insulators (SOIs) or silicon germanium-on-insulators (SGOIs). In some embodiments of the present invention, it is preferred that the semiconductor substrate 12 be composed of a Si-containing semiconductor material, i.e., a semiconductor material that includes silicon. The semiconductor substrate 12 may be doped, undoped or contain doped and undoped regions therein.
It is also noted that the semiconductor substrate 12 may be strained, unstrained or contain strained regions and unstrained regions therein. The semiconductor substrate 12 may also have a single crystal orientation or alternatively, the substrate 12 may be a hybrid semiconductor substrate that has surface regions having different crystallographic orientations. For example, the semiconductor substrate 12 within the nFET device region 14 may have a surface crystal orientation that is (100), while the semiconductor substrate within the pFET device region 16 may have a surface crystal orientation that is (110). The hybrid substrates may have bulk characteristics, SOI like characteristics or combinations of both bulk and SOI like characteristics.
The semiconductor substrate 12 may also have one or more isolation regions 15 such as, for example, trench isolation regions or field oxide isolation regions, located therein. The one or more isolation regions, which are typically present between the nFET device region and pFET device region, are formed utilizing conventional processing which is well known to those skilled in the art of semiconductor device manufacturing.
The gate dielectric 20 of the material stack 18 is formed on the surface of the semiconductor substrate 12 after the substrate has been processed. The gate dielectric 20 can be formed by a thermal growing process such as, for example, oxidation. Alternatively, the gate dielectric 20 can be formed by a deposition process such as, for example, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), plasma-assisted CVD, atomic layer or pulsed deposition (ALD or ALPD), evaporation, reactive sputtering, chemical solution deposition or other like deposition processes. The gate dielectric 20 may also be formed utilizing any combination of the above processes.
The gate dielectric 20 is comprised of an insulating material (or material stack) having a dielectric constant of about 4.0 or greater, preferably greater than 7.0. The dielectric constants mentioned herein are relative to a vacuum, unless otherwise stated. Note that SiO2 typically has a dielectric constant that is about 4.0. Specifically, the gate dielectric 20 employed in the present invention includes, but is not limited to: an oxide, nitride, oxynitride and/or silicates including metal silicates, aluminates, titanates and nitrides. In one embodiment, it is preferred that the gate dielectric 20 is comprised of an oxide such as, for example, SiO2, HfO2, ZrO2, Al2O3, TiO2, La2O3, SrTiO3, LaAlO3, Y2O3 and mixtures thereof Of these oxides, SiO2 is typically used as the gate dielectric material.
The physical thickness of the gate dielectric 20 may vary, but typically, the gate dielectric 20 has a thickness from about 0.5 to about 10 nm, with a thickness from about 0.5 to about 5 nm being more typical.
After forming the gate dielectric 20, a poly-Si containing material 22 is formed on the gate dielectric 20 utilizing a known deposition process such as, for example, physical vapor deposition (PVD), CVD or evaporation. As shown in
The poly-Si containing material 22 comprises polycrystalline Si, polycrystalline SiGe or multilayers thereof. Of these materials, it is preferred that the poly-Si containing material to be comprised of polycrystalline Si. In some embodiments, the poly-Si containing material 22 is undoped at this point of the present invention. In other embodiments of the present invention, the poly-Si containing material 22 is doped at this point of the present invention. Pre-doping may be achieved utilizing an in-situ doping deposition process, or deposition followed by gas phase doping, or ion implantation. Typically, the poly-Si containing material 22 used is a thin film having a vertical thickness that is about 100 nm or less, with a thickness from about 10 to about 50 nm being more typical.
The material stack 18 shown in
The thickness of the oxide hard mask 24 may vary depending on, for example, the technique used in forming that material layer. Typically, the oxide hard mask 24 of the material stack 18 has a thickness from about 10 to about 1000 nm, with a thickness from about 50 to about 100 nm being even more typical.
After providing the initial structure 10 shown in
The patterned gate stacks 26 which are shown, for example, in
Each of the patterned gate stacks 26 can also be passivated at this point of the present invention by subjecting the same to a thermal oxidation, nitridation or oxynitridation process. The passivation step forms a thin layer of passivating material (not shown) about the material stack. This step may be used instead or in conjunction with the subsequent step of spacer formation. When used with the spacer formation step, spacer formation occurs after the material stack passivation process.
After forming the patterned gate stacks 26 within each device region, an off-set spacer 28 is formed on exposed sidewalls thereof. The resultant structure including the off-set spacer 28 is also shown in
Source/drain extension regions 30 and optionally halo implant regions (not specifically shown) are then formed into the substrate 12 at this point of the present invention. Block masks are typically formed on one of the device region during the ion implantation step, removed and then formed on the structure protecting the other device region that received the previous ion implantation. The source/drain extension regions 30 are formed utilizing ion implantation and an annealing step; the anneal step may be delayed and performed after other implantation steps of the present invention. The annealing step serves to activate the dopants that were implanted by the previous implant step. The conditions for the ion implantation and annealing are well known to those skilled in the art. The source/drain extensions regions 30 are formed prior to the deep source/drain (S/D) implantation using a conventional extension implant. The source/drain extension regions 30 have a doping concentration (n- or p-type) of about 1019 atoms/cm3 or greater, with a doping concentration of about 1020 atoms/cm3 or higher being more highly preferred. The S/D extension regions 30 are shallower in comparison with the deep source/drain regions to be subsequently formed. The depth of the S/D extension regions is determined in part by the energy of the extension ion implantation. Typically, the extension ion implantation is performed at an energy of about 0.1 to about 10 keV for As or P, about 0.1 to 30 keV for Sb, about 0.1 to about 5 keV for B or BF2, which provides an extension junction depth of about 1 to about 20 nm below the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate 12.
The structure shown in
After forming the oxide layer, the first spacer 36 is formed by deposition and etching. Specifically, the first spacer 36 is a wide spacer that is comprised of a nitride, oxynitride and/or any combination thereof. The width of the first spacer 36 must be sufficiently wide such that the source and drain silicide contacts (to be subsequently formed) do not encroach underneath the edges of the patterned gate stack. Typically, the source/drain silicide does not encroach underneath the edges of the patterned gate stack when the first spacer 36 has a width, as measured at the bottom, from about 20 to about 80 nm.
It is noted that no implantations occur immediately after the first spacer 36 formation or the formation of the patterned oxide layer 34.
The structure shown in
After forming the oxide layer 38, the second spacer 40 is formed by deposition and etching. Specifically, the second spacer 40 is a disposable wide spacer that is comprised of a nitride, oxynitride and/or any combination thereof. The width of the second spacer 40, as measured at the bottom, is from about 20 to about 80 nm.
With the 3-1 spacer scheme in place, deep source/drain regions 42 are formed into the substrate 12 by ion implantation and annealing. The annealing, which may be delayed until after subsequent ion implantation processes, serves to activate the dopants implanted into the substrate 12. The conditions for the ion implantation and annealing are well known to those skilled in the art. Block masks are typically formed on one of the device region during the ion implantation step, removed and then formed on the structure protecting the other device region that received the previous ion implantation. The deep source/drain regions 42 have a doping concentration (n- or p-type) of about 1019 atoms/cm3 or greater, with a doping concentration of about 1020 atoms/cm3 being more highly preferred. The deep source/drain regions 42 are deeper in comparison with the source/drain extension regions 30 previously formed. The depth of the deep source/drain regions 42 are determined in part by the energy of the ion implantation used. Typically, the deep source/drain ion implantation is performed at an energy of about 20 keV or greater for As, 10 keV or greater for P, 30 keV or greater for Sb, 5 keV or greater for B, 8 keV or greater for BF2, which provides a junction depth below the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate 12 of about 20 nm or greater, preferably 40 nm or greater, and more preferably 50 nm or greater.
At this point of the present invention, the oxide layer 38 as well as the oxide hard mask 24 are removed from the structure utilizing an etching process that selectively removes oxide. For example, HF can be used in removing oxide layer 38 and the oxide hard mask 24 from the structure.
A buffer implant can now be performed which bridges the source/drain extension region 30 to the deep source/drain regions 42. The buffer implant is optional. Although such an implant is optional, it is preferred to utilizing the same in order to provide the aforementioned bridge between the source/drain extension regions 30 and the deep source/drain regions 42. The buffer implant region is denoted by reference numeral 44 in
At this point of the present invention, selective ion implantation is performed which introduces dopant atoms into the exposed poly-Si material containing 22 in each of the device regions. Specifically, n-type dopants are introduced into the exposed poly-Si containing material 22 in the n-device region 14, while p-type dopants are introduced in the exposed poly-Si containing material 22 in the p-device region 16. The order of the implantations is not critical to the present invention. A block mask is used in this process to protect the exposed poly-Si containing material 22 in one device region, while ion implanting into the exposed poly-Si containing material 22 in the other device region. The block mask is removed, another block mask is formed protecting the previous ion implanted device region, and a second ion implantation is performed into the previously protected poly-Si containing material 22.
In the case of the n-device region 14, n-type dopants including at least one atom from Group VA of the Periodic Table of Elements (CAS version) are introduced into the exposed poly-Si containing material 22 utilizing an ion implantation process and annealing. The n-type dopants include for example P, As, Sb or mixtures thereof. The conditions for the ion implantation include a dose that is sufficient to provide the exposed poly-Si containing material 22 within the nFET device region 14 to have a dopant concentration of about 1019 atoms/cm3 or greater. This dopant concentration is also present at the interface between the gate dielectric 20 and the doped poly-Si containing material. More typically, a concentration of dopants of from about 1020 atoms/cm3 or greater is introduced at this step of the present invention.
In the case of the p-type device region 16, p-type dopants employed in the present invention include at least one atom from Group IIIA of the Periodic Table of Elements (CAS version) and they are introduced into the exposed poly-Si containing material 22 in the pFET device region 16 by ion implantation and annealing. The conditions for the ion implantation include a dose that is sufficient to provide the exposed poly-Si containing material 22 within the pFET device region 16 to have a dopant concentration of about 1019 atoms/cm3 or greater. This dopant concentration is also present at doped poly-Si containing material/gate dielectric interface. More typically, a concentration of dopants of from about 1020 atoms/cm3 or greater is introduced at this step of the present invention.
In
In accordance with the present invention, this anneal includes heating the structure to a temperature of about 650° C. or greater, with a temperature of about 800° C. or greater being more preferred. This anneal is carried out using a furnace anneal, a rapid thermal anneal, a spike anneal or a laser anneal. The exact duration of the anneal varies depending on the thickness of the poly-Si containing material 22 as well as the type of annealing process employed. An inert gas such as He, Ar or He—Ar can be used during the activation annealing process.
Further CMOS processing such as formation of silicided contacts (source/drain and gate) as well as formation of BEOL (back-end-of-the-line) interconnect levels with metal interconnects can be formed utilizing processing steps that are well known to those skilled in the art.
Reference is now made to
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with respect to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in forms and details may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the present invention not be limited to the exact forms and details described and illustrated, but fall within the scope of the appended claims.