This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-183788, filed on Aug. 25, 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same.
A gate electrode of a dual work function FET (DWF-FET) includes a first electrode layer having a first work function, and a second electrode layer having a second work function that is different from the first work function. The first and second electrode layers are disposed adjacent to each other in a gate length direction.
For example, the DWF-FET is formed by forming the first electrode layer and a dummy electrode on a substrate via a gate insulator, surrounding the side surfaces of the first electrode layer and the dummy electrode with an inter layer dielectric, removing the dummy electrode to form a hole in the inter layer dielectric, and embedding the second electrode layer in the hole.
According to the DWF-FET, the substantial gate length is shortened from the width of the gate electrode to the width of the first or second electrode layer, so that a drain current of the FET can be increased. Furthermore, although a maximum transmission frequency of the FET is inversely proportional to the ½ power of the gate resistance, the gate resistance of the DWF-FET can be reduced compared to a general FET. Therefore, according to the DWF-FET, high frequency characteristics of the FET can be improved.
However, when the hole is minute in the DWF-FET, it is difficult to embed the second electrode layer in the hole and therefore it is difficult to form the gate electrode.
Embodiments will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.
An embodiment described herein is a semiconductor device including a substrate, and a gate insulator disposed on the substrate. The device further includes a gate electrode including a first electrode layer which is disposed on an upper surface of the gate insulator and has a first work function, and a second electrode layer which is continuously disposed on the upper surface of the gate insulator and an upper surface of the first electrode layer and has a second work function that is different from the first work function, and sidewall insulators disposed on side surfaces of the gate electrode. A height of the upper surface of the first electrode layer is lower than a height of upper surfaces of the sidewall insulators.
The semiconductor device of
The semiconductor substrate 101 is, for example, a silicon substrate.
Isolation insulators 102 for electrically isolating DWF-FETs from each other are formed in the semiconductor substrate 101. The isolation insulators 102 are, for example, silicon oxide films formed by the shallow trench isolation (STI) method.
The first impurity diffusion layers 121 are formed in the semiconductor substrate 101 to sandwich the gate electrode 112. The second impurity diffusion layers 122 are formed under the first impurity diffusion layers 121 in the semiconductor substrate 101 to sandwich the gate electrode 112. The second impurity diffusion layer 122 on a left side of the drawing corresponds to a source layer, and the second impurity diffusion layer 122 on a right side of the drawing corresponds to a drain layer. The first impurity diffusion layers 121 correspond to extension layers.
Silicide layers 123 are formed on upper surfaces of the first impurity diffusion layers 121. Examples of the silicide layers 123 include nickel silicide (NiSi) layers and cobalt silicide (CoSi) layers.
The gate insulator 111 is formed on the semiconductor substrate 101. The gate insulator 111 is, for example, a silicon oxide film formed by thermal oxidation.
The gate electrode 112 is formed on the semiconductor substrate 101 via the gate insulator 111. The gate electrode 112 includes a first electrode layer 112a having a first work function, and a second electrode layer 112b having a second work function that is different from the first work function. For example, the first electrode layer 112a is a polysilicon layer, and the second electrode layer 112b is a metal layer formed of metal material having a larger work function than that of polysilicon. An example of the metal layer includes a tungsten (W) layer. The first and second electrode layers 112a and 112b may be a semiconductor layer other than the polysilicon layer and a metal layer formed of metal material having a larger work function than that of the semiconductor layer, respectively.
The first electrode layer 112a is formed on an upper surface of the gate insulator 111. The second electrode layer 112b is continuously formed on the upper surface of the gate insulator 111 and an upper surface of the first electrode layer 112a. The first and second electrode layers 112a and 112b are located on a drain layer side and a source layer side at a lower surface of the gate electrode 112, respectively. In this embodiment, the gate insulator 111 is also formed on a side surface of the first electrode layer 112a. The reasons why such structure is provided will be explained later.
The first sidewall insulators 113 are formed on side surfaces of the gate electrode 112. The second sidewall insulators 114 are formed on the side surfaces of the gate electrode 112 via the first sidewall insulators 113. Examples of the first and second sidewall insulators 113 and 114 are silicon oxide films. As shown in
The semiconductor device of
(1) Details of Structure of Gate Electrode 112
The structure of the gate electrode 112 will be explained in detail with reference to
Symbols W1 and W2 shown in
The values of the heights H1 and H2 are sufficiently larger than a thickness of the gate insulator 111. Therefore, the height H1 is approximately equal to a height from an upper surface of the semiconductor substrate 101 to the upper surface of the first electrode layer 112a, and the height H2 is approximately equal to a height from the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate 101 to the upper surface of the first sidewall insulator 121. Accordingly, the heights H1 and H2 correspond to a height to the upper surface of the first electrode layer 112a and a height to the upper surfaces of the first sidewall insulators 121 from the same reference point, respectively.
The widths W1 and W2 will be explained below in detail.
In this embodiment, the gate electrode 112 includes the first electrode layer 112a and the second electrode layer 112b. The first and second electrode layers 112a and 112b are disposed adjacent to each other in the X direction. In addition, the first electrode layer 112a is located on the drain layer side, and the second electrode layer 112b is located on the source layer side. Therefore, the substantial gate length in this embodiment is shortened from the width of the gate electrode 112 (W1+W2) to the width of the second electrode layer 112b (W2). Accordingly, the drain current of the FET can be increased according to this embodiment.
In this embodiment, the substantial gate length can be shortened by reducing the width W2. Therefore, the width W2 is set to be shorter than the width W1 in this embodiment (W2<W1). At this time, the drain current can be increased compared to when the width W2 is set to be larger than the width W1. In this embodiment, for example, the width W1 is set to be 120 to 140 nm and the width W2 is set to be 20 to 40 nm.
The heights H1 and H2 will be explained below in detail.
In this embodiment, the second electrode layer 112b is embedded in the hole between the first electrode layer 112a and the first sidewall insulator 121 as described later. If this hole is minute, it is difficult to embed the second electrode layer 112b in the hole. Since the width of this hole is equal to the width W2, it becomes more difficult to embed the second electrode layer 112b when the width W2 is reduced for shortening the substantial gate length.
Therefore, the first electrode layer 112a in this embodiment is thinned before the second electrode layer 112b is embedded in the hole, so that the height H1 of the upper surface of the first electrode layer 112b becomes lower than the height H2 of the upper surfaces of the first sidewall insulators 121 (H1<H2). Consequently, a width of an opening through which the second electrode layer 112b is embedded is increased from the width W2 to the width W1+W2, so that the second electrode layer 112b can be easily embedded in the hole.
The second electrode layer 112b is embedded easily as the height H1 is reduced. In this embodiment, the height H1 is equal to or lower than half of the height H2 (H1≦H2/2). As compared to when the height H1 is higher than half of the height H2, the second electrode layer 112b can be easily embedded. In this embodiment, for example, the height H2 is set to be 70 to 90 nm, and the height H1 is set to be 20 to 40 nm.
Since the height H1 is set to be shorter than the height H2 in this embodiment, the second electrode layer 112b is easily embedded even when the width W2 is set to be sufficiently shorter than the width W1. In this embodiment, the width W2 may be equal to or shorter than half of the width W1 as described in the above numerical example (W2≦W1/2).
The gate resistance of the gate electrode 112 will be explained below in detail.
In this embodiment, the first electrode layer 112a is a polysilicon layer, and the second electrode layer 112b is a metal layer. In General, the electrical resistivity of metal material is lower than that of polysilicon. Therefore, the gate resistance in this embodiment can be reduced compared to a general FET in which the gate electrode 112 is formed of only polysilicon. Since the height H1 is set to be shorter than the height H2 in this embodiment, the ratio of the second electrode layer 112b to the gate electrode 112 is reduced, so that the gate resistance can be further reduced.
In this embodiment, since the height H1 is set to be lower than the height H2, the gate resistance can be reduced and the high frequency characteristic of the FET can be improved.
As described above, this embodiment can provide the DWF-FET including the gate electrode 112 which includes plural electrode layers 112a and 112b having different work functions, has a low gate resistance, and is easily manufactured.
(2) Method of Manufacturing Semiconductor Device A method of manufacturing the semiconductor device of the first embodiment will be explained with reference to
First, the semiconductor substrate 101 is prepared (
As shown in
In this embodiment, a metal layer such as a tungsten (W) layer is used as the hard mask layer 201. Since first and second dummy electrodes 211 and 212 described later are silicon nitride films, the hard mask layer 201 is required to be made of material having an etching selection ratio to the silicon nitride films.
Next, the hard mask layer 201 is etched by reactive ion etching (RIE) or the like using a resist film as a mask (
While the first electrode layer 112a is etched, a portion of the first insulator 111a where the first electrode layer 112a remains is protected, but the other portion of the first insulator 111a where the first electrode layer 112a is removed is damaged by RIE or is removed. Therefore, in this embodiment, a process for restoring the damaged first insulator 111a or forming a similar insulator as the removed first insulator 111a is carried out to form an insulator having a predetermined thickness. This process is carried out by, for example, thermal oxidation.
This insulator is used as a second insulator 111b for forming the gate insulator 111. As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Next, annealing treatment is performed for activating the impurities introduced by ion implantation. For example, spike annealing may be performed at 1050° C. as the annealing treatment. Silicide layers 123 are then formed on the first impurity diffusion layers 121 as shown in
Next, the first inter layer dielectric 131 is deposited on the entire surface of the semiconductor substrate 101 by, for example, CVD (
Next, the surface of the first inter layer dielectric 131 is planarized by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) to expose the first electrode layer 112a, the first dummy electrode 211, and the first and second sidewall insulators 113 and 114 (
Next, the height of the upper surface of the first electrode layer 112a is adjusted by, for example, wet etching (
As shown in
The first dummy electrode 211 is then removed by, for example, wet etching to form a hole in the first inter layer dielectric 131 (
As shown in
As shown in
Subsequently, the second inter layer dielectric 132, and other interconnect layers, via plugs, inter layer dielectrics and the like are formed by conventional methods in this embodiment. Consequently, the semiconductor device shown in
According to this embodiment, the second electrode layer 112b can be easily embedded in the hole by thinning the first electrode layer 112a. Consequently, the second electrode layer 112b can be easily embedded in the hole so that any space is not left in the hole.
In addition, due to thinning the first electrode layer 112a, the ratio of the second electrode layer 112b to the gate electrode 112 can be reduced and therefore the gate resistance can be reduced according to this embodiment.
Since the first dummy electrode 211 is removed by wet etching in this embodiment, the damage to the gate insulator 111 (second insulator 111b) can be reduced.
(3) Effects of First Embodiment
The effects of the first embodiment will be explained below.
As described above, the height H1 of the upper surface of the first electrode layer 112b is set to be lower than the height H2 of the upper surface of the first sidewall insulator 121 in this embodiment (H1<H2). Accordingly, the ratio of the second electrode layer 112b to the gate electrode 112 can be reduced and therefore the gate resistance can be reduced according to this embodiment. In addition, according to this embodiment, the second electrode layer 112b can be easily embedded by damascene process and therefore the gate electrode 112 can be easily manufactured. Since the second electrode layer 112b is easily embedded according to this embodiment, the substantial gate length can be effectively reduced by setting the width W2 of the second electrode layer 112b be sufficiently shorter than the width W1 of the first electrode layer 112a.
As described above, this embodiment can provide the DWF-FET including the gate electrode 112 which includes plural electrode layers 112a and 112b having different work functions, has a low gate resistance, and is easily manufactured.
In the semiconductor device of
In
Since the adjacent DWF-FETs in the X direction are separated by the isolation insulators 102 and the buried insulator 312 in this embodiment, punch-through can be suppressed effectively compared to when the semiconductor substrate 101 is used as the first embodiment.
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 devices and methods described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the devices and methods 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 |
---|---|---|---|
2011-183788 | Aug 2011 | JP | national |