The present disclosure generally relates to the field of electronics and, more particularly, to integrated circuit devices including stacked transistors.
Integrated circuit devices including stacked transistors, such as a complementary field effect transistor (CFET) stack, were introduced to reduce their area, and performance of those integrated circuit devices may depend on resistances of conductive elements (e.g., conductive elements formed through middle-of-line (MOL) processes).
According to some embodiments of the present invention, resistance measuring structures may include a first CFET stack, a second CFET stack, and a conductive connection. The first CFET may include a first upper transistor that includes a first upper drain region and a first lower transistor that is between the substrate and the first upper transistor and includes a first lower drain region. The second CFET may include a second upper transistor that includes a second upper drain region and a second lower transistor that is between the substrate and the second upper transistor and includes a second lower drain region. The conductive connection may electrically connect or may contact the first upper drain region and the second upper drain region.
According to some embodiments of the present invention, resistance measuring structures may include a first CFET stack and a second CFET stack. The first CFET may include a first upper transistor that includes a first upper drain region and a first lower transistor that is between the substrate and the first upper transistor and includes a first lower drain region. The second CFET may include a second upper transistor that includes a second upper drain region and a second lower transistor that is between the substrate and the second upper transistor and includes a second lower drain region. The first upper drain region, the first lower drain region, the second upper drain region, and the second lower drain region may be electrically connected to each other.
According to some embodiments of the present invention, resistance measuring structures may include a first CFET stack, a second CFET stack, and a conductive connection on a substrate. The first CFET may include a first upper transistor that includes a first upper drain region and a first lower transistor that is between the substrate and the first upper transistor and includes a first lower drain region. The second CFET may include a second upper transistor that includes a second upper drain region and a second lower transistor that is between the substrate and the second upper transistor and includes a second lower drain region. The conductive connection may contact the substrate, the first upper drain region, the first lower drain region, the second upper drain region, and the second lower drain region.
According to some embodiments of the present invention, resistance measuring structures for a stacked integrated circuit device are provided. The stacked integrated circuit device may be a single integrated circuit chip that includes multiple CFET stacks, each of which includes a N-type transistor and a P-type transistor stacked on a substrate. The resistance measuring structure may include two CFET stacks and may be included in the stacked integrated circuit device. The stacked integrated circuit device may include multiple resistance measuring structures.
Referring to
Drain regions of all four transistors (i.e., the first lower transistor LTR1, the first upper transistor UTR1, the second lower transistor LTR2, and the second upper transistor UTR2) may be electrically connected to each other. Those drain regions may be electrically connected to a current source for current forcing and may be also electrically connected to a first probe of a voltage meter. In some embodiments, the drain regions are electrically connected to each other through a conductive connection (e.g., a first conductive connection 32_1 in
To obtain an upper drain contact resistance Rcnt_UD, the source region of the first upper transistor UTR1 may be electrically connected to the second probe of the voltage meter, the source region of the second upper transistor UTR2 may be electrically connected to a current sensing circuit to measure a current I1 flowing through the second upper transistor UTR2, and the first upper transistor UTR1 and the second upper transistor UTR2 may be turned on by applying an appropriate gate voltage thereto. The first lower transistor LTR1 and the second lower transistor LTR2 may remain turned off. The upper drain contact resistance Rcnt_UD may be a resistance of an upper portion of the conductive connection (e.g., a first conductive connection 32_1 in
Rcnt_UD=(V1−V2)/I1 Equation 1:
V1−V2 is a voltage measured by the voltage meter.
To obtain a lower drain contact resistance Rcnt_LD, the source region of the first lower transistor LTR1 may be electrically connected to the second probe of the voltage meter, the source region of the second lower transistor LTR2 may be electrically connected to a current sensing circuit to measure a current I2 flowing through the second lower transistor LTR2, and first lower transistor LTR1 and the second lower transistor LTR2 may be turned on by applying an appropriate gate voltage thereto. The first upper transistor UTR1 and the second upper transistor UTR2 may remain turned off. The lower drain contact resistance Rcnt_LD may be a resistance of a lower portion of the conductive connection (e.g., a first conductive connection 32_1 in
Rcnt_LD=(V1−V2)/I2−Rcnt_UD Equation 2:
V1−V2 is a voltage measured by the voltage meter.
Referring to
A first gate structure 24_1 may be provided between the first lower drain region 26LD_1 and the first lower source region 26LS_1 and between the first upper drain region 26UD_1 and the first upper source region 26US_1 and may surround at least portion of each of the first lower active region 22L_1 and the first upper active region 22U_1. The first gate structure 24_1 may include a gate dielectric layer and a gate electrode.
The second lower transistor LTR2 may include a second lower drain region 26LD_2, a second lower source region 26LS_2 and a second lower active region 22L_2. The second upper transistor UTR2 may include a second upper drain region 26UD_2, a second upper source region 26US_2 and a second upper active region 22U_2. A second gate structure 24_2 may be provided between the second lower drain region 26LD_2 and the second lower source region 26LS_2 and between the second upper drain region 26UD_2 and the second upper source region 26US_2. Spatial relationships and configurations of elements of the second lower transistor LTR2 and the second upper transistor UTR2 may be the same as or similar to those of the first lower transistor LTR1 and the first upper transistor UTR1.
The first lower transistor LTR1 may be between the substrate 100 and the first upper transistor UTR1, and the second lower transistor LTR2 may be between the substrate 100 and the second upper transistor UTR2. The first lower transistor LTR1 may be spaced apart from the second lower transistor LTR2 in a first horizontal direction (an X direction) that may be parallel to the upper surface 100U of the substrate 100 and may traverse the second horizontal direction. The first upper transistor UTR1 may be spaced apart from the second upper transistor UTR2 in the first horizontal direction. In some embodiments, the first horizontal direction may be perpendicular to the second horizontal direction.
In some embodiments, the first lower drain region 26LD_1, the first upper drain region 26UD_1, the second lower drain region 26LD_2 and the second upper drain region 26UD_2 are electrically connected to each other through a first conductive connection 32_1. The first conductive connection 32_1 may contact the first lower drain region 26LD_1, the first upper drain region 26UD_1, the second lower drain region 26LD_2 and the second upper drain region 26UD_2 as illustrated in
The resistance measuring structure 1000 may also include a second conductive connection 32_2, a third conductive connection 32_3, a fourth conductive connection 32_4, and a fifth conductive connection 32_5, which contact the first upper source region 26US_1, the first lower source region 26LS_1, the second lower source region 26LS_2, and the second upper source region 26US_2, respectively. Each of the second through the fifth conductive connections 32_2, 32_3, 32_4, and 32_5 may be electrically connected to a corresponding wire (i.e., a second wire 36_2, a third wire 36_3, a fourth wire 36_4, or a fifth wire 36_5) through a via contact (i.e., a second via contact 34_2, a third via contact 34_3, a fourth via contact 34_4, or a fifth via contact 34_5).
To obtain the upper drain contact resistance Rcnt_UD, the first upper source region 26US_1 may be electrically connected to a second probe of a voltage meter through the second wire 36_2, and the second upper source region 26US_2 may be electrically connected to a current sensing circuit through the fifth wire 36_5 to measure a current (i.e., a current I1 in
For example, the substrate 100 may include a semiconductor material (e.g., silicon, germanium, silicon-germanium) and/or a III-V semiconductor compounds (e.g., GaP, GaAs, GaSb). In some embodiments, the substrate 100 may be a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate (e.g., such as a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate or a germanium-on-insulator (GOI) substrate). As used herein the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The first to fifth conductive connections 32_1 to 32_5, the first to fifth via contacts 34_1 to 34_5, and the first to fifth wires 36_1 to 36_5 may include a conductive material such as metal (e.g., titanium, aluminum), metal alloy, and/or a nitride or carbide of the metal.
Unlike the resistance measuring structure 1000, in the resistance measuring structure 2000, drain regions of the first lower transistor LTR1 and the second lower transistor LTR2 are not electrically connected to drain regions of the first upper transistor UTR1 and the second upper transistor UTR2, and thus an upper drain contact resistance Rcnt_UD′ and an upper source contact resistance Rcnt_US may have an equal value. Accordingly, both the upper drain contact resistance Rcnt_UD′ and the upper source contact resistance Rcnt_US can be obtained by electrically connecting the drain regions of the first upper transistor UTR1 and the second upper transistor UTR2 to a current source and a first probe of a voltage meter, turning on the first upper transistor UTR1 and the second upper transistor UTR2, and electrically connecting the source region of the first upper transistor UTR1 to a second probe of the voltage meter. The upper drain contact resistance Rcnt_UD′ and the upper source contact resistance Rcnt_US can be calculated by Equation 3.
Rcnt_UD′ and Rcnt_US=(V1−V2)/I3 Equation 3:
I3 refers to a current flowing through the second upper transistor UTR2, and V1−V2 is a voltage measured by the voltage meter.
A plan view of the resistance measuring structure 2000 in
Referring to
To obtain the upper drain contact resistance Rcnt_UD′ and the upper source contact resistance Rcnt_US, the first upper drain region 26UD_1 and the second upper drain region 26UD_2 may be electrically connected to a current source and a first probe of a voltage meter through the first wire 36_1, the first upper source region 26US_1 may be electrically connected to a second probe of the voltage meter through the second wire 36_2, and the second upper source region 26US_2 may be electrically connected to a current sensing circuit through the fifth wire 36_5 to measure a current (i.e., a current I3 in
A plan view of the resistance measuring structure 3000 in
Referring to
The resistance Rmetal of the metal layer can be obtained by electrically connecting the drain regions (i.e., the first lower drain region 26LD_1, the first upper drain region 26UD_1, the second lower drain region 26LD_2 and the second upper drain region 26UD_2) to a current source and a first probe of a voltage meter through the first wire 36_1, electrically connecting the first lower wire 42_1 to a second probe of the voltage meter and electrically connecting the second lower wire 42_2 to current sensing circuit to measure a current I4. The resistance Rmetal of the metal layer can be calculated by Equation 4.
Rmetal=(V1−V2)/I4 Equation 4:
Referring to
Referring to
Example embodiments are described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings. Many different forms and embodiments are possible without deviating from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the present invention should not be construed as limited to the example embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will convey the scope of the present invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, the sizes and relative sizes of layers and regions may be exaggerated for clarity. Like reference numbers refer to like elements throughout.
Example embodiments of the present invention are described herein with reference to plan views, cross-sectional views, and side views that are schematic illustrations of idealized embodiments and are provided to illustrate spatial relationships and electrical connections between elements. The present invention, however, is not limited to the shapes and dimensions of those elements illustrated in those views. 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 of the present invention should not be construed as limited to the particular shapes illustrated herein but include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
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 the present invention belongs. 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.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. 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 the stated features, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.
It will be understood that although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. Thus, a first element could be termed a second element without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The above-disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, and not restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall within the scope of the present invention. Thus, to the maximum extent allowed by law, the scope is to be determined by the broadest permissible interpretation of the following claims and their equivalents and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoing detailed description.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/382,149, filed Jul. 21, 2021, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/188,508, entitled RESISTANCE MEASUREMENT MACRO FOR 3D STACKED DEVICES, filed in the USPTO on May 14, 2021, the disclosure of each of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63188508 | May 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17382149 | Jul 2021 | US |
Child | 18406345 | US |