Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to methods for forming structures including one or two dimensional lattice structures, and devices including one or two dimensional lattice structures.
Description of the Related Art
Microelectronics applications have been increasingly employing one and two dimensional devices, such as graphene devices, due to their conductive, mechanical and other properties. For example, processing of graphene is often unconventional relative to traditional processing techniques and is often difficult to control and incorporate into semiconductor processing. One dimensional and two dimensional nanometer scale materials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, typically suffer from degradation and performance limitations when processed into electronic or photonic devices.
In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of forming an electrical device, in which the channel region of the electrical device is provided by a 1D and/or 2D nanoscale material. In one embodiment, the method includes forming a gate dielectric layer over a gate electrode. Source and drain electrodes are formed on opposing sides of the gate electrode, wherein one end of the source and drain electrodes provides a coplanar surface with the gate dielectric. A 1D or 2D nano scale material is formed on the coplanar surface to provide the channel region of the device.
In another embodiment, the method includes forming a gate dielectric layer over a gate electrode. Source and drain electrodes are formed on opposing sides of the gate electrode, wherein one end of the source and drain electrodes provides a coplanar surface with the gate dielectric. A 1D or 2D nanoscale material comprising carbon nanotubes, graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus or a combination thereof is formed on the coplanar surface to provide the channel region of the device.
In another aspect of the disclosure, an electrical device is provided that comprises a planar interface provided by a gate dielectric, a source electrode and a drain electrode that are arranged in coplanar relationship. A 1D or 2D nanoscale material providing the channel region of the electrical device that is present on the planar interface and is in direct contact with a first face of the gate dielectric. A gate electrode present on a second face of the gate dielectric that is opposite the first face of the gate dielectric.
These and other features and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
The disclosure will provide details in the following description of preferred embodiments with reference to the following figures wherein:
Detailed embodiments of the claimed methods, structures and computer products are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely illustrative of the claimed structures and methods that may be embodied in various forms. In addition, each of the examples given in connection with the various embodiments are intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. Further, the figures are not necessarily to scale, some features may be exaggerated to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the methods and structures of the present disclosure.
Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present principles, as well as other variations thereof, means that a particular feature, structure, characteristic, and so forth described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present principles. Thus, the appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment”, as well any other variations, appearing in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. For purposes of the description hereinafter, the terms “upper”, “over”, “overlying”, “lower”, “under”, “underlying”, “right”, “left”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, and derivatives thereof shall relate to the embodiments of the disclosure, as it is oriented in the drawing figures. The term “positioned on” means that a first element, such as a first structure, is present on a second element, such as a second structure, wherein intervening elements, such as an interface structure, e.g. interface layer, may be present between the first element and the second element. The term “direct contact” means that a first element, such as a first structure, and a second element, such as a second structure, are connected without any intermediary conducting, insulating or semiconductor layers at the interface of the two elements.
The structures and methods that are disclosed herein provide a scalable process for the formation of self-aligned, planar electrodes for devices employing one or two dimensional lattice structures. It has been determined that in some 1D (one dimensional) and 2D (two dimensional) nanometer scale materials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, the material can suffer from degradation and performance limitations when processed into electronic or photonic devices. For example, in some prior methods, the nanomaterial are integrated into the electrical devices in an early stage of the manufacturing process, and it has been determined that exposing the 1D and/or 2D nanometer scale materials to early fabrication steps for semiconductor devices, such as etch processing and annealing, deteriorate the physical properties of the 1D and/or 2D nanometer scale materials, which, ultimately can limit the performance of the electrical device. In some embodiments, the methods and structures disclosed herein can overcome the deficiencies of prior methods with a manufacturing process that self-aligns the dimensions of the 1D or 2D material to match the target device dimensions that are determined by the specifics of the scalable gate stack; and allows for placing arbitrary, 1D or 2D nanomaterials on a planarized substrate at the end of the manufacturing process. As will be described in greater detail below, the methods disclosed herein allow for the device dimensions to be freely scalable and the material limitations of prior methods that can limit device performance can be kept at a minimum. In some embodiments, the methods and structures of the present disclosure combine three semiconductor processing steps, e.g., a dielectric thin film deposition process step, a polishing process step, and an etch process step, in order to sale the device channel dimensions to control target values which are given by the dimension of a gate electrode and the gate dielectric. Thereafter, the channel material, i.e., 1D or 2D nanoscale material, is deployed on the planarized stack without the need for the 1D or 2D nanoscale material to be subjected to further processing steps. As will be discussed in greater detail below, one advantage of the methods disclosed herein is that the device channel dimensions can be freely scaled. The 1D or 2D nanoscale materials employed herein may include carbon nanotubes, graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, or other like materials. The methods and structures disclosed herein are now described with greater detail referring to
In some embodiments, the insulating substrate 5 is coated with a positive photoresist (e.g. PMMA) for mask production. The photoresist layer 10 may be deposited onto the insulating substrate using a deposition method, such as spin on deposition. In some embodiments, following deposition the photoresist may be baked. Although PMMA has been listed above as one composition for the photoresist layer 10, the present disclosure is not limited to only this composition, as other photoresist compositions are equally applicable to the present disclosure, such as poly(methyl glutarimide) (PMGI), phenol formaldehyde resin (DNQ/Novolac), SU-8, hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) and combinations thereof. In other embodiments, instead of using a softmask that is composed of a photoresist material, a hard mask may be employed. Hardmask materials that are suitable for use with the methods disclosed herein may include an oxide, nitride, or metal deposited by a deposition method.
Referring to
Referring to
In some embodiments, after depositing the second conductive material for the source and drain contacts 20a, 20b, a planarization process may be applied to the second conductive material. The planarization process may be applied to provide that the upper surface of the source and drain contacts 20a, 20b is coplanar with the upper surface of the gate dielectric layer 25. The planarization process can be provided by chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). In some embodiments, an etch process, such as reactive ion etch (RIE), may be substituted for the planarization process, or an etch process may be used in combination with the planarization process.
It is noted that the source and drain contacts 20a, 20b are separated from the gate electrode 15 by the portion of the gate dielectric layer 25 that is present on sidewalls of the gate electrode 15.
The terms “nanometer scale” or “nanoscale” denote that at least one dimension of the structure being referred to is less than 100 nm. In some examples, the largest dimension of the nanoscale material is less than 100 nm. In further examples, the largest dimension of the nanoscale material is less than 50 nm. A “one dimensional (1D)” material denotes a material in which one dimension is greater than the other two dimensions. One example of a one dimensional (1D) material is a nanorod. A “two dimensional (2D)” material denotes a material in which two dimensions are greater than the remaining dimensions. One example of a two dimensional (2D) material is a nanosheets or graphene.
Suitable nanomaterials for the 1D (one dimensional) and/or 2D (two dimensional) nanometer scale material 30 include single-layer or multi-layer organic and inorganic layered materials, e.g., graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus, regular arrays and random networks/thin films made of quasi-one dimensional lattice structures, such as organic and inorganic nanotubes/nanowires. Graphene is a one atom thick layer of sp2 bonded carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal or honeycomb lattice. Other examples of 1D (one dimensional) and/or 2D (two dimensional) nanometer scale materials include carbon nanotubes. Transition metal dichalcogenides suitable for use as 1D (one dimensional) and/or 2D (two dimensional) nanometer scale materials may have a molecular formula of MX2, where M is a metallic element selected from the group consisting of titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), zirconium (Zr), niobium (Nb), molybdenum (Mo), technetium (Tc), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), palladium (Pd), silver (Ag), cadmium (Cd), hafnium (Hf), tantalum (Ta), tungsten (W), rhenium (Re), osmium (Os), iridium (Ir), platinum (Pt), gold (Au), mercury (Hg) and combinations thereof, and X is a chalcogen element selected from the group consisting of sulfur (S), selenium (Se), tellurium (Te), oxygen (O) and combinations thereof. A “nanowire” is a nanostructure, with the diameter of the order of a nanometer (10−9 meters), which can also be defined as the ratio of the length to width being greater than 1000. Alternatively, nanowires can be defined as structures that have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers or less and an unconstrained length. Nanowires include superconducting (e.g., YBCO), metallic (e.g., Ni, Pt, Au), semiconducting (e.g., Si, InP, GaN, etc.), and insulating (e.g., SiO2, TiO2) structures.
Suitable placement methods for the above materials include in-situ material growth, e.g. through chemical vapor deposition, electric field-assisted assembly from solution, or material exfoliation and transfer, e.g., bonding.
Because the 1D (one dimensional) and/or 2D (two dimensional) nanometer scale material 30 is formed after the gate structure, i.e., gate electrode 16 and gate dielectric layer 25, and the source and drain contacts 20a, 20b, the 1D (one dimensional) and/or 2D (two dimensional) nanometer scale material 30 is self-aligned to the gate structure, and the source and drain contacts 20a, 20b. For example, the 1D (one dimensional) and/or 2D (two dimensional) nanometer scale material 30 may be self-aligned to match the target device dimensions, e.g., the distance separating the source and drain contacts 20a, 20b. In this embodiment, the target device dimensions are determined by the specifics of the scalable gate stack, e.g., gate electrode 15. The method described herein also allows for the 1D (one dimensional) and/or 2D (two dimensional) nanometer scale material 30 to be positioned within the electrical device during a time period in the manufacturing of the device after the gate structure and source and drain contacts 20a, 20b have already been formed. This way, the device dimensions are freely scalable and material degradations that limit device performance are kept at a minimum.
Methods as described herein may be used in the fabrication of integrated circuit chips. The resulting integrated circuit chips can be distributed by the fabricator in raw wafer form (that is, as a single wafer that has multiple unpackaged chips), as a bare die, or in a packaged form. In the latter case the chip is mounted in a single chip package (such as a plastic carrier, with leads that are affixed to a motherboard or other higher level carrier) or in a multichip package (such as a ceramic carrier that has either or both surface interconnections or buried interconnections). In any case the chip is then integrated with other chips, discrete circuit elements, and/or other signal processing devices as part of either (a) an intermediate product, such as a motherboard, or (b) an end product. The end product can be any product that includes integrated circuit chips, ranging from toys and other low-end applications to advanced computer products having a display, a keyboard or other input device, and a central processor.
While the methods and structures of the present disclosure have 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 disclosure. It is therefore intended that the present disclosure not be limited to the exact forms and details described and illustrated, but fall within the scope of the appended claims.
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