This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-202108, filed on Sep. 9, 2010, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof.
There has been known a technique of additionally implanting an impurity in a part of a source/drain region of a MOS transistor to which a contact plug is connected to reduce an electric resistance of a connected part of the source/drain region and the contact plug. This additional implantation of an impurity is performed through a contact hole formed in an insulating film on a source/drain region.
When this technique is applied to a case of manufacturing an n-type transistor and a p-type transistor on a same substrate, a mask for closing a contact hole on a source/drain region of a different conductive type from that of the impurity is used to selectively implant a conductive impurity in a source/drain region of a same conductive type as that of the impurity. However, because a photolithography process for forming the mask is required, the number of manufacturing processes is increased.
Further, there has been known a technique of implanting an impurity in a direction tilted from a direction vertical to a region in a substrate between transistors as an implant direction where an impurity enters. When an impurity enters in the direction tilted from the vertical direction, an impurity diffusion region extends largely toward the direction where an impurity enters. Accordingly, when a region that becomes a current path such as a source/drain region is formed, there is a possibility of occurrence of a short channel effect.
FIGS. 5A(a), 5A(b), 5B(c), and 5B(d) are top views showing modifications of the transistor 10b according to the first embodiment;
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device comprises first and second transistors, first and second contact plugs, and a high-concentration impurity region. The first transistor is formed on a substrate and comprises a first gate electrode and first source and drain regions. The second transistor is formed on the substrate and comprises a second gate electrode and second source and drain regions of a conductive type different from that of the first source and drain regions. The first contact plug is electrically connected to the first source and drain regions and comprises a first bottom surface which has a longitudinal direction and a short direction. A width of the first bottom surface in a direction parallel to a gate width direction of the first gate electrode is wider than a width of the first bottom surface in a direction parallel to a gate length direction of the first gate electrode. The second contact plug is electrically connected to the second source and drain regions and comprises a second bottom surface. Widths in all directions of the second bottom surface are narrower than the longitudinal direction width of the first bottom surface. High-concentration impurity regions are formed between the first source and drain regions and the first contact plugs. The high-concentration impurity regions are a same conductive type as that of the first source and drain regions. The first contact plug is electrically connected to the first source and drain regions through the high-concentration impurity regions. At least one of extending widths of an outline of the high-concentration impurity region extending from an outline of the first bottom surface in a longitudinal direction is larger than extending widths of an outline of the high-concentration impurity region extending from an outline of the first bottom surface in a short direction.
Embodiments will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.
A first embodiment of the present invention is an exemplary embodiment for explaining a case where the present invention is applied to a NAND flash memory device.
The semiconductor device 1 has transistors 10a and 10b formed in a peripheral circuit region 100 on a semiconductor substrate 2, and a memory cell 20 formed in a memory cell region 200. An insulating layer 4 is formed on the transistors 10a and 10b and the memory cell 20. The insulating layer 4 is omitted from
An active area on the semiconductor substrate 2 where the transistors 10a and 10b and the memory cell 20 are formed is isolated by an isolation insulating film 3. The transistor 10a and the transistor 10b are of different conductive types. The memory cell 20 is of a same conductive type as that of the transistor 10a.
For example, the transistor 10a and the memory cell 20 are of n-type and the transistor 10b is of p-type.
The transistor 10a includes a gate dielectric film 17a on the semiconductor substrate 2, a gate electrode 13a on the gate dielectric film 17a, and a source/drain region 12a in an active area on both sides of the gate electrode 13a.
A contact plug 11a is connected to the source/drain region 12a. A high-concentration impurity region 15a is formed near an interface between the source/drain region 12a and the contact plug 11a in the source/drain region 12a. The high-concentration impurity region 15a reduces an electric resistance of a connected part of the contact plug 11a and the source/drain region 12a. The high-concentration impurity region 15a cannot be formed.
The high-concentration impurity region 15a is formed by additionally implanting an impurity in the source/drain region 12a, and has the same conductive type as that of the source/drain region 12a. Its impurity concentration is higher than that of the source/drain region 12a.
The transistor 10b includes a gate dielectric film 17b on the semiconductor substrate 2, a gate electrode 13b on the gate dielectric film 17b, and a source/drain region 12b on both sides of the gate electrode 13b. A contact plug 11b is connected to the source/drain region 12b.
The contact plug 11b is connected to the source/drain region 12b and a high-concentration impurity region 16 is formed near an interface between the source/drain region 12b and the contact plug 11b in the source/drain region 12b. The high-concentration impurity region 16 reduces an electric resistance of a connected part of the contact plug 11b and the source/drain region 12b.
The high-concentration impurity region 16 is formed by additionally implanting an impurity in the source/drain region 12b and has the same conductive type as that of the source/drain region 12b. Its impurity concentration is higher than that of the source/drain region 12b.
A high-concentration impurity region 15b that is of a different conductive type from that of the high-concentration impurity region 16 is also formed near the interface between the source/drain region 12b and the contact plug 11b in the source/drain region 12b. However, because the impurity concentration of the high-concentration impurity region 15b is lower than that of the high-concentration impurity region 16, the conductive type of the high-concentration impurity region 16 is dominant near the interface between the source/drain region 12b and the contact plug 11b in the source/drain region 12b.
A region 5 in the insulating layer 4 indicated by a dotted line in
The memory cell 20 includes a plurality of serially-connected stacked-gate-type memory cell transistors 23 and a selective transistor 24 connected to ends of each memory cell transistor 23. By arranging the memory cell transistors 23 and the selective transistors 24 in this manner, a NAND memory cell string is constituted. The memory cell transistor 23 is connected via a source/drain region 22 to the selective transistor 24.
The contact plug 21 is connected to the source/drain region 22 that connects two adjacent selective transistors 24. The high-concentration impurity region 25 is formed near an interface between the source/drain region 22 and the contact plug 21 in the source/drain region 22. The high-concentration impurity region 25 is formed by additionally implanting an impurity in the source/drain region 22 and has the same conductive type as that of the source/drain region 22. Its impurity concentration is higher than that of the source/drain region 22.
The memory cell transistor 23 includes a gate dielectric film 23a on the semiconductor substrate 2, a floating gate 23b on the gate dielectric film 23a, an inter-gate dielectric film 23c on the floating gate 23b, and a control gate 23d on the inter-gate dielectric film 23c. The control gate 23d is shared with an adjacent memory cell 23 in a lateral direction in
The selective transistor 24 includes a gate dielectric film 24a on the semiconductor substrate 2 and a selective gate 24b on the gate dielectric film 24a. The selective gate 24b is shared with an adjacent selective transistor 24 in the lateral direction in
The bottom surface of the contact plug 11b is formed in a shape that the longitudinal direction and the short direction are provided, such as a rectangle or an ellipse. In the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b, a width W2 in a direction parallel to the gate width direction Y1 of the gate electrode 13b is wider than a width W1 in a direction parallel to the gate length direction X1 of the gate electrode 13b. The longitudinal direction Y2 matches or is similar to the gate width direction Y1 of the gate electrode 13b.
Meanwhile, bottom surfaces of the contact plugs 11a and 21 are formed in a shape that their widths in all directions are narrower than the width of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in the longitudinal direction Y2. The shape is a square or a circular shape, for example. Particularly in the contact plug 21, an elliptical contact which is long toward the selective transistor 24 side is used to reduce the electric resistance of the connected part of the source/drain region 22 and the contact plug 21. Even in this case, the bottom surface of the contact plug 21 in a long diameter direction is narrower than the width of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in the longitudinal direction Y2.
A width D1 in
The outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16 is a concentration contour line of an impurity that constitutes the high-concentration impurity region 16 at a predetermined concentration. This predetermined concentration is smaller than the maximum impurity concentration of the high-concentration impurity region 16 and larger than the impurity concentration of the source/drain region 12b. And the predetermined concentration is, for example, an intermediate concentration between the maximum impurity concentration of the high-concentration impurity region 16 and the impurity concentration of the source/drain region 12b.
Examples of impurity concentrations of the respective regions are indicated below in a case that the transistor 10a and the memory cell 20 are of n-type and the transistor 10b is of p-type. As or P is used for the n-type impurity and B is used for the p-type impurity.
The impurity concentration of the source/drain regions 12a, 12b, and 22 is 1×1019 cm−3. The maximum impurity concentration (concentration around the center) of the high-concentration impurity regions 15a, 15b, and 25 is 3×1020 cm−3. The maximum impurity concentration (concentration around the center) of the high-concentration impurity region 16 is 6×1020 cm−3.
In this case, the concentration of the outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16 is larger than 1×1019 cm−3 and smaller than 6×1020 cm−3, such as 3.05×1019 cm−3, for example.
FIGS. 5A(a), 5A(b), 5B(c), and 5B(d) are top views showing modifications of the transistor 10b according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 5A(a) shows the configuration of the transistor 10b when the longitudinal direction Y2 of the contact plug 11b does not match the gate width direction Y1 of the gate electrode 13b. When the longitudinal direction Y2 is shifted greatly from the gate width direction Y1, that is, when the width W1 approximates the width W2, a distance between the high-concentration impurity region 16 and the gate electrode 13b is reduced and thus a short channel effect may occur. Accordingly, a shift of the longitudinal direction Y2 from the gate width direction Y1 is preferably as small as possible. As in the configuration shown in
FIG. 5A(b) shows the configuration of the transistor 10b when the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b is formed in an elliptical shape. In this case, the high-concentration impurity region 16 is also formed in a substantially elliptical shape. The width D2 is a distance from a long-diameter direction top of the ellipse of the contact plug 11b to a long-diameter direction top of the ellipse of the high-concentration impurity region 16. The width D1 is a distance from a short-diameter direction top of the eclipse of the contact plug 11b to a short-diameter direction top of the eclipse of the high-concentration impurity region 16. Also in this configuration, the width D2 is larger than the width D1.
FIG. 5B(c) shows the configuration of the transistor 10b when an end of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in the longitudinal direction Y2 (lower end in FIG. 5B(c)) is outside the outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16.
In the configuration shown in FIG. 5B(c), the outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16 extends from the outline of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in the longitudinal direction Y2 only in one side (upper side in FIG. 5B(c)). Alternatively, while the outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16 extends in both directions in the longitudinal direction Y2, one extending width can be smaller than the width D1.
That is, at least one of the widths D2 that the outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16 extends from the outline of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in the longitudinal direction Y2 is larger than the width D1 that the outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16 extends from the outline of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in the short direction X2.
FIG. 5B(d) shows the configuration of the transistor 10b when one end of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in the short direction X2 (right end in FIG. 5B(d)) is outside the outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16.
According to the configuration shown in FIG. 5B(d), the outline of the high-concentration impurity region 16 extends from the outline of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in the short direction X2 only in one side (left side in FIG. 5B(d)). Also in this configuration, the width D2 is larger than the width D1.
The semiconductor substrate 2 is made of a Si based crystal including a Si crystal.
The isolation region 3 is made of an insulating material such as SiO2 and has an STI (Shallow Trench Isolation) structure.
The gate electrodes 13a and 13b, the control gate 23b, and the floating gate 23d are made of a conductive material such as polycrystalline Si containing a conductive impurity.
The gate dielectric films 17a, 17b, 23a, and 24a and the inter-gate dielectric film 23c are made of an insulating material such as SiO2.
The contact plugs 11a, 11b, and 21 are made of a conductive material such as W. Surfaces of the contact plugs 11a, 11b, and 21 can be covered by a barrier metal.
The insulating layer 4 is made of an insulating material such as SiO2.
An example of a manufacturing method of the semiconductor device 1 according to the first embodiment is explained next.
As shown in
As shown in
Next, as shown in
Next, as shown in
When an n-type impurity is implanted in this process, the concentration of the implantation is 1×1015 cm−2, for example.
Alternatively, an impurity can be implanted after forming a mask so as to selectively close an open part of the contact hole 19b by lithography. In this case, the high-concentration impurity region 15b is not formed and only the high-concentration impurity regions 15a and 25 are formed.
Next, as shown in
When a p-type impurity is implanted in this process, the concentration of the implantation is 1×1015 cm−2 to 3×1015 cm−2, for example.
The implant direction where an impurity enters is specifically indicated with reference to
As shown in
The twist angle θ based on the longitudinal direction Y3 represents an amount of twist of the horizontal component of the implant direction where an impurity enters from the longitudinal direction Y3, and corresponds to an angle formed by the horizontal component of the implant direction where an impurity enters and the longitudinal direction Y3.
When the twist angle is increased, the width of the high-concentration impurity region 16 in the longitudinal direction Y2 is reduced and the electric resistance of the connected part of the contact plug 11b and the source/drain region 12b may not be reduced sufficiently. Particularly when the twist angle is larger than 45°, the horizontal component of the implant direction where an impurity enters is not toward the longitudinal direction Y3 but toward the short direction X3 (that is substantially equal to the short direction X2 of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b). The twist angle is thus required to be less than 45°.
Because of such reasons, it is particularly preferable that the twist angle is 0° as shown in
As shown in
Meanwhile, because the implant direction where an impurity enters is tilted from the direction vertical to the surface of the semiconductor substrate 2, the impurity does not reach the bottoms of the contact holes 19a and 29 having reduced widths in all directions (all impurities that enter the contact holes 19a and 29 are implanted in the upper part of the insulating layer 4 exposed at the side surfaces of the contact holes 19a and 29). Even when an impurity reaches the bottoms of the contact holes 19a and 29, the concentration of the impurity implanted in the source/drain regions 12a and 22 exposed at the bottoms of the contact holes 19a and 29 is lower than that of the impurity implanted in the source/drain region 12b exposed at the bottom of the contact hole 19b.
Next, as shown in
Because an impurity is implanted around the center of the high-concentration impurity region 16 in the processes shown in
When the process shown in
Because the widths of the bottom surfaces of the contact holes 19a and 29 in all directions are narrower than the width of the bottom surface of the contact hole 19b in the longitudinal direction Y3, any impurity implanted to form the high-concentration impurity region 16 hardly reaches the bottoms of the contact holes 19a and 29 or does not reach at all regardless of the angle at which the transistors 10a and 10b and the memory cell 20 are arranged.
Accordingly, even when a plurality of the transistors 10a and 10b and the memory cells 20 having different arrangement angles are formed, the high-concentration impurity region 16 can be formed in each transistor 10b without any impurity hardly reaching the bottoms of the contact holes 19a and 29 or not reaching there at all.
After the high-concentration impurity region 16 is formed, the high-concentration impurity regions 15a, 15b, and 25 can be formed. When the high-concentration impurity regions 15a, 15b, and 25 are of n-type and the high-concentration impurity region 16 is of p-type, the high-concentration impurity region 16 is preferably formed after the high-concentration impurity regions 15a, 15b, and 25 are formed. When the high-concentration impurity regions 15a, 15b, and 25 are of p-type and the high-concentration impurity region 16 is of n-type, the high-concentration impurity regions 15a, 15b, and 25 are preferably formed after the high-concentration impurity region 16 is formed. This is because, when a heavy p-type impurity such as As or P is implanted subsequent to a light n-type impurity such as B, the n-type impurity is pushed to diffuse into an undesirable region, since the high-concentration impurity region 15b and the high-concentration impurity region 16 are formed so that parts of them overlap with each other.
Thereafter, activation annealing is performed to activate the implanted impurity. At this time, the width of the high-concentration impurity region 15a, the width of the high-concentration impurity region 15b in the short direction X2, and the width of the high-concentration impurity region 25 in a direction where the selective transistor 24 is adjacent thereto may be larger than those of the bottoms of the contact holes 19a, 19b, and 29 because of thermal diffusion. A conductive material is then embedded in the contact holes 19a, 19b, and 29, so that the contact plugs 11a, 11b, and 21 are formed.
According to the first embodiment, the high-concentration impurity region 16 can be selectively formed in the transistor 10b without a lithography process. Accordingly, the number of processes of manufacturing the semiconductor device 1 can be reduced and manufacturing costs can be reduced.
Further, because the longitudinal direction Y2 of the bottom surface of the contact plug 11b in which the high-concentration impurity region 16 extends largely matches or is similar to the gate width direction Y1 of the gate electrode 13b, the high-concentration impurity region 16 extends a little toward the gate electrode 13b side and thus occurrence of a short channel effect caused by the high-concentration impurity region 16 approaching excessively to the gate electrode 13b can be suppressed.
Particularly when the transistor 10b is a high speed transistor, the gate electrode 13b is arranged near the contact plug 11b. The high-concentration impurity region 16 thus tends to approach to the gate electrode 13b. When the transistor 10b is a high speed transistor, the first embodiment becomes particularly effective.
Because the semiconductor device 1 according to the first embodiment is a NAND flash memory device having a NAND memory cell string and the distance between the contact plug 11b and the gate electrode 13b for the transistor 10b in the peripheral circuit region 100 is relatively short, it is very important to suppress occurrence of a short channel effect.
The transistor 10b-2 is obtained by rotating the transistor 10b-1 by 90 degrees. That is, an extending direction where a gate electrode of the transistor 10b-2 extends is an X direction. A longitudinal direction of a contact plug 11b-2 of the transistor 10b-2 is the X direction and its short direction is a Y direction.
In other words, the semiconductor device 1-1 is an embodiment in which p-type transistors 10b has different longitudinal directions of the contact 11b.
However, as shown in
Therefore, as shown in
Meanwhile, as shown in
Even in this case, because the widths of the bottom surfaces of the contact holes 19a and 29 in all directions are narrower than the longitudinal direction widths of the bottom surfaces of the contact holes 19b-1 and 19b-2, any impurity implanted to form the high-concentration impurity regions 16-1 and 16-2 hardly reaches the bottoms of the contact holes 19a and 29 or does not reach there at all regardless of the angle at which the transistors 10a and 10b and the memory cell 20 are arranged.
Thereafter, an impurity is implanted at a twist angle θ of 270° as in the process of
That is, according to the second embodiment, the high-concentration impurity region 16-1 of the p-type transistor 10b-1 and the high-concentration impurity region 16-2 of the p-type transistor 10b-2 are formed by implanting an impurity for four times. Twist angles θ of the impurity implantation are 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°, respectively.
In order to reduce the number of implantation, the impurity implantation can be performed twice at twist angles of 45° and 225° or 135° and 315°.
The semiconductor device 1-1 can also achieve effects identical to those of the semiconductor device 1 according to the first embodiment. Further, by the semiconductor device 1-1, flexibility of the arrangement direction of the p-type transistor 10b is improved.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the semiconductor device according to the present invention is not limited to a NAND flash memory device including NAND flash memories.
Further, it suffices that the transistor 10a and the memory cell 20 are of a conductive type different from that of the transistor 10b (10b-1, 10b-2). For example, it is also applicable that the transistor 10a and the memory cell 20 are of p-type and the transistor 10b is of n-type. In this case, it suffices that the type of the impurity concentration explained in the above embodiments is inverted.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2010-202108 | Sep 2010 | JP | national |