Patent Application
20060054964
The present invention generally relates to a semiconductor device and more particularly to a semiconductor device with a transistor body conterminous to an isolating area.
A nitride read only memory (NROM) cell, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,192 or Boaz Eitan et.al.:“NROM: A Novel Localized Trapping, 2-Bit Nonvolatile Memory Cell”, IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 21, no. 11, November 2000, consists of a transistor body forming a channel between two diffusion areas on either side of the channel forming source and drain regions. In case of a p-doped transistor body, for example, boron ions are used for dotation. Above the channel, which is covered by an oxide-nitride-oxide layer, a gate electrode is arranged. The nitride layer functions as a charge-trapping layer, sandwiched by the insulating oxide layers, which avoid vertical retention. Two individual bits are stored in physically different areas of the charge-trapping region. The first area is near the source and the second area is near the drain. The bits are programmed by using channel hot electron programming to inject electrons from the channel into the charge-trapping region according to the applied voltages. For erasing a bit, hot holes or Fowler-Nordheim tunneling can be used. The bit can be read by applying a reverse voltage between the source and drain compared to a voltage that is necessary to program the bit.
So called programming and reading voltages, that are applied to the leads of the transistor body for writing, erasing and reading the cell, depend on the width of the channel and the concentration of dopant ions in the transistor body. The deviation of the threshold voltage of the transistor increases with decreasing the width of the channel and non-homogeneity of the dopant ions in the transistor body.
A cell array consists of several cells arranged as a matrix. The minimum distance between two neighboring cells of the cell array is limited by interference effects, especially residual injection into a charge-trapping layer of a neighboring cell due to channel hot electron programming.
It is known that transistors in a transistor array can be separated by isolating areas therebetween preventing interference effects. The isolating area is normally formed by shallow trench isolation (STI) comprising forming a trench in a upper layer of a semiconductor substrate and filling the trench with insulating material. A trench can be formed for example by photolithographic etching.
Shallow trench isolation is applied to separate memory cells in a cell array; but the segregation of dopant ions of the transistor body, near the isolating trench, into the insulating material results in a non-homogeneity of the dopant ions in the transistor body. Another diffusion effect relating to dopant ions is known from boron phosphorous silicate glass (BPSG) wherein the diffusion of ions into a neighboring transistor body is lessened by a diffusion barrier.
Considering an NROM cell array, the effects of segregation vary from cell to cell due to the above-described segregation. Therefore, the operating voltages of the cells in an array vary also, especially in the case of small channel width. But, operating a cell array requires equal driving voltages of each cell otherwise the logic circuit of the array is hard to realize.
In one aspect, the invention provides a semiconductor device and a method for fabricating a region thereon that overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices.
In a further aspect, the present invention provides a transistor body of doped semiconductor substrate and diffusion barrier forming at least one trench into a top of the semiconductor substrate limiting an isolating area. Preferably, the dopant concentration in the transistor body is homogeneous or nearly homogeneous.
In a first embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a transistor body of doped semiconductor substrate and a conterminous isolating area formed of insulating material. A diffusion barrier is located between the transistor body and the isolating area. The diffusion barrier can form a trench into a top of the semiconductor substrate limiting the isolating area.
In another embodiment, a semiconductor device includes an active area of doped semiconductor substrate and a conterminous isolating area formed of insulating material. A diffusion barrier is located between the active area and the isolating area. The diffusion barrier can form a trench into a top of the semiconductor substrate limiting the isolating area.
A preferred embodiment of the device further includes an active area of boron doped semiconductor substrate and a conterminous oxy-nitride layer forming at least one trench into a top of the semiconductor substrate limiting the isolating area. There can be an oxide layer between the active area and the oxy-nitride layer.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a trench limiting a channel, which is part of an improved NROM cell, and separating the channel of at least one channel of at least one neighboring cell.
In yet a further object aspect, the present invention provides an improved NROM cell with small channel width and increased programming speed and improved 2-bit-separation.
An inventive embodiment for fabricating the semiconductor device is also described. A semiconductor substrate is provided. Dopant ions are implanted into at least a region on top of the semiconductor substrate to form a transistor body. A trench is formed conterminous to the transistor body into the top of the semiconductor substrate. An oxy-nitride layer is deposited on the surface of the trench. The trench is filled with insulating material.
In an alternative method, a trench is formed into a top of a semiconductor substrate. Dopant ions are implanted into at least an upper layer of the substrate conterminous to the trench to form a transistor body. An oxy-nitride layer is deposited on the surface of the trench and the trench is filled with insulating material.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following brief description of the drawings, detailed description and appended claims and drawings.
This invention is not limited to NROM cells but can also be used in other semiconductor devices comprising a transistor body, to prevent segregation of ions from the transistor body into adjacant regions.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The making and using of the presently preferred embodiments are discussed in detail below. It should be appreciated, however, that the present invention provides many applicable inventive concepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specific embodiments discussed are merely illustrative of specific ways to make and use the invention, and do not limit the scope of the invention.
A further pullback step results in laterally removing the nitride. Therefore the pad nitride 2 on the semiconductor material between the trenches is not flush with the edges of the trenches 4. This step exposes an upper surface 3 of the transistor body 1.
The oxy-nitride layer 5 prevents segregation of the boron ions of the transistor body 1 into the STI, essentially without negative effect on the data retention, because the number of charge-trays in the oxy-nitride layer is small as compared to a pure nitride layer.
The profiles shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 are along the lines between A and A′ shown in
The above-written preferred production steps also characterize the preferred embodiment of the described transistor body separated by shallow trench isolation.
Although boron is the preferred dopant the present invention is not limited to boron. For example, indium is a possible dopant as well. If n-type dopants are desired, either arsenic or phosphors, as examples, can be used.
