SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE HAVING VARIOUS WIDTHS UNDER GATE

Abstract

One embodiment of the invention relates to a semiconductor device formed over a semiconductor body. In this device, source and drain regions are formed in the body about lateral edges of a gate electrode and are separated from one another by a gate length. A channel region, which is configured to allow charged carriers to selectively flow between the source and drain regions during operation of the device, has differing widths under the gate electrode. These widths are generally perpendicular to the gate length. Other devices, methods, and systems are also disclosed.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices and more particularly to methods and systems for providing matched transistors.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Since semiconductor transistors were first implemented, there has been an on-going effort to reduce the area that individual transistors take up on an integrated circuit (i.e., “shrink” them), thereby allowing more transistors to fit on the integrated circuit. This trend is one factor that helps manufacturers to produce more powerful integrated circuits that have more functionality than previous generations. Indeed, this is one factor that has helped to usher in the communication age as we know it.

In addition to shrinking the area of individual transistors, in many applications designers also go to great lengths to match the characteristics of various transistors on a single integrated circuit. For example, designers often match transistors' geometries (i.e., layouts) so that the transistors experience similar electrical stresses with respect to surrounding devices. Depending on design constraints, designers may want to match the gains (β), currents delivered (I_DS), voltage thresholds (V_T), or other transistor characteristics of two or more transistors.

Accordingly, there is an on-going need for integrated circuits that strike a balance between minimal transistor area and precise matching.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of one or more aspects of the invention. This summary presents one or more concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later and is not an extensive overview of the invention. In this regard, the summary is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention, nor does the summary delineate the scope of the invention.

One embodiment of the invention relates to a semiconductor device formed over a semiconductor body. In this device, source and drain regions are formed in the body about lateral edges of a gate electrode and are separated from one another by a gate length. A channel region, which is configured to allow charged carriers to selectively flow between the source and drain regions during operation of the device, has differing widths under the gate electrode. These widths are generally perpendicular to the gate length. Other devices, methods, and systems are also disclosed.

The following description and annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects and implementations of the invention. These are indicative of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1C show a somewhat conventional transistor;

FIGS. 2A-2C show a top view and cross-sectional views of some illustrative I-shaped transistors;

FIG. 3 shows a top-view of a T-shaped transistor;

FIG. 4 shows a top-view of an array of T-shaped transistors;

FIG. 5A-5B shows additional embodiments of transistors in accordance with aspects of the invention;

FIG. 6A-6B shows additional embodiments of transistors in accordance with aspects of the invention;

FIG. 7 shows a method for manufacturing a transistor in accordance with aspects of the invention;

FIGS. 8-12 show a transistor at various stages of manufacture, in accordance with one embodiment of the method shown in FIG. 7;

FIGS. 13-16 show graphical plots in accordance with aspects of one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 17 shows a circuit having first and second matched transistors.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout, and wherein the illustrated structures and devices are not necessarily drawn to scale.

Referring now to FIG. 1A-1C, one can see a somewhat traditional metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor 100 (MOSFET) that is formed over a semiconductor substrate 102. An isolation trench 104, which typically comprises oxide or another dielectric, surrounds a rectangular isolated region 106 within the semiconductor body. In the illustrated embodiment, the isolated region 106 may correspond to a lightly doped well 108, which is formed within the substrate 102. Often, one can think of the isolation trench 104 as a “sea” surrounding islands of silicon where devices are built.

A gate-electrode 110, about which a source 112 and drain 114 are laterally disposed, overlies the substrate 102. Pocket implant regions 116, 118 can be formed near the lateral edges of the gate-electrode, where a bulk region 120 separates the pocket implants from one another. A dielectric layer 122 directly overlies the substrate 102, providing electrical isolation between the gate electrode 110 and a channel region in the body between the source 112 and drain 114.

Typically, the source and drain 112, 114 have a first conductivity type, while the bulk region 120 and pocket implant regions 116, 118 have a second conductivity type that is opposite to the first conductivity type. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, the source and drain 112, 114 are p-type (highly doped P++), while the bulk region 120 and pocket implant regions 116, 118 are n-type (lightly doped N−, and highly doped N+, respectively). In such a configuration (i.e., a PMOS device), the substrate could be lightly doped p-type material (P−). As shown in FIG. 1C, the device may also include source and drain extension regions.

During operation, current selectively flows between the source and drain 112, 114 through the pocket implant regions 116, 118 and the bulk region 120 (i.e., through the channel region), depending on the bias applied to the device.

Referring now to FIG. 17, one can see an example of an integrated circuit 1700 that includes first and second matched transistors 1702, 1704 (e.g., metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs)), which have identical length-to-width ratios. The matched transistors 1702, 1704 are associated with analog circuitry that utilizes a matching characteristic of the first and second matched transistors to facilitate analog functionality. In the illustrated embodiment, the first and second matched transistors 1702, 1704 comprise a current mirror where the first and second matched transistors 1702, 1704 provide matched currents I_Ref, I₀ along two legs of the current mirror. Thus, because a common gate voltage is applied to the gate electrodes of the matched transistors 1702, 1704 and a common (albeit changing) drain-source voltage (V_DS) is also established, the transistors could provide matched currents I_Ref, I₀ between their sources and drains (I_DS). This allows the current mirror to be used to supply current to another block. In other embodiments, matched transistors could be used in amplifiers, or any number of other types of analog circuits.

As the inventors have appreciated, the previously discussed conventional MOSFET transistor 100 is in some ways ill-suited for use in such an analog circuit 1700. More specifically, the inventors have appreciated that the pocket implant regions 116, 118 often act as a “blockade” to regulate the amount of current that actually flows through the device. Because the concentration of dopant atoms in the pocket implant regions 116, 118 is difficult to precisely control (e.g., due to statistical variations in the small number of atoms that make up the pocket region), the potential barriers associated with the pocket implant regions can vary widely from one transistor to another. This makes it difficult to precisely match one transistor to another, particularly at low overdrive (V_GS−V_T) values used to save headroom in analog circuits.

By analyzing the relative contributions of the bulk region 120 and pocket regions 116, 118 to matching in the device 100, the inventors have appreciated that the majority of the area in the bulk region 120 may be wasted in terms of the ability to match one transistor to another. The inventors have taken advantage of this realization by fashioning devices with “I-shaped” or “T-shaped” channel regions instead of more typical rectangular-shaped channel regions. These I-shaped or T-shaped channel regions could be achieved by forming correspondingly shaped isolation structures or by corresponding doping variations under the gate electrode. Some illustrative devices and methods are now set forth below.

Referring now to FIG. 2A-2C, one can see a transistor 200 formed within an I-shaped shallow trench isolation structure that facilitates an I-shaped channel region. Like transistor 100, transistor 200 is formed over a semiconductor substrate 202 in which a well 204 is formed. Transistor 200 also includes a gate electrode 206 having gate length, L, which separates a source 208 from a drain 210, and pocket implant regions 212, 214, which are separated from one another by a bulk region 216. In some embodiments, the gate electrode may also include spacers or other un-illustrated features.

The transistor 200 is formed within an isolation trench 218 that defines an I-shaped isolated region 220 in the semiconductor body 102. This isolated region 220 includes the I-shaped bulk region 216 and the pocket implant regions 212, 214, where different widths are associated therewith. One can see that the I-shaped bulk region 216, which may also be referred to as a first region in some embodiments, has various widths w₁, w₂, w₃ under the gate 206. In the illustrated embodiment, width w₁ is measured between a pair of opposing sidewalls 216A, 216B, w₂ is measured between opposing sidewalls 210A, 210B, and w₃ is measured between opposing sidewalls 208A, 208B. All of these sidewalls are adjacent to the isolation trench 218.

Often, the pocket implant regions do not coincide precisely with the relatively wide regions of the I-shaped bulk region. Rather, the relatively wide regions typically extend further under the gate than the pocket implants to avoid current crowding.

In various embodiments where the device 200 is used in an analog manner, this width w₁ could typically be less than the gate length L. For example, width w₁ could be less than the gate length L by a factor of approximately 1 to approximately 50. The drain 210 and source 208, which in some embodiments may be referred to as a second region and third region, respectively, have a second width w₂ and a third width w₃ respectively. In the I-beam configuration 200, the second and third widths w₂, w₃ are approximately equal to one another and are greater than the first width w₁. However, in other embodiments (e.g., in a T-shaped configuration discussed below), these widths w₂, w₃ could differ from one another.

In one embodiment, these widths w₁, w₂, w₃, can be tailored such that two matched transistors in separate isolation structures are optimally matched to one another, while they also take up a minimal area on the integrated circuit. In effect, this configuration allows a designer to “shrink” a rectangular-shaped device without sacrificing quality of matching. For example, in one embodiment, a designer may want the matching precision of a rectangular-shaped MOSFET having a length of 20 um and a width of 2 um, but cannot tolerate the large area (i.e., at least 20 um*2 um=40 um²) required for such a device. Thus, the designer could use an I-shaped MOSFET where the pocket regions have lengths L₂=L₃=(about 0.5 um) and widths w₂=w₃=(about 2 um). The designer could use a bulk region with a total length (L−L₂−L₃)=(about 2 um) and a width w₁=(about 0.5 um). Thus, the I-shaped device with similar matching characteristics would have an active area of about (2×(2 um×0.5 um)+(0.2 um*2 um)=2.4 um²), in other words consuming a rectangular area of (0.5 um+2 um+0.5 um)*2 um=6 um². Thus, the I-shaped device results in a significant reduction in area in comparison to a rectangular-shaped device. Of course, these values are only illustrative and it will be appreciated that the lengths and widths of transistors in accordance with the invention could vary widely from those set forth here.

As shown in FIG. 2C, in various embodiments the transistor 200 may also include extension regions 222, 224 adjacently underlying the gate electrode 206 and adjacent to the source 208 and drain 210, respectively. These extension regions 222, 224 typically have the same conductivity type as the source and drain 208, 210, albeit at slightly lower concentrations. Thus, in the illustrated example, the source and drain 208, 210 are doped P++, while the source/drain extension regions 222, 224 are doped P+.

Referring now to FIG. 3, one can see another transistor 300 formed within a shallow trench isolation structure 302 that defines a T-shaped isolated region 304. As shown, in this embodiment, the isolated region 304 may include a T-shaped bulk region 216 under the gate 206 with first and second widths w₁, w₂. The drain 210 and pocket region 214 may share the second width w₂, while the source 208 and pocket region 212 may share the first width w₃=w₁. Notably, in some embodiments, this transistor 300 may still have substantially the same matching ability as transistor 200, but consumes less area on the die.

The T-shaped transistors may be advantageous in that they can be tiled together in an inter-digitated configuration 400 as shown in FIG. 4. By inter-digitating the T-shaped transistors in this configuration 400, a denser layout may be achieved, potentially providing greater functionality for the overall integrated circuit. As illustrated, in this configuration 400, a first transistor 402 is formed within an isolation structure 404 and has a wide drain 406 and a narrow source 408. A second transistor 410 is formed such that is also has a wide drain 414 and narrow source 416. However, the second transistor 410 is translated vertically by a distance H, relative to the first transistor 402. The second transistor 410 is also flipped horizontally about a central axis 418 relative to the first transistor 402. Additional transistors (e.g., transistors 420, 422, 424, 426) are also positioned in this manner. As shown, adjacent columns of transistors may be flipped about another vertical axis 428 relative to one another.

FIGS. 5-6 show some additional embodiments that may employed in combination with those devices discussed above. Generally speaking, in these illustrated embodiments, the corners in the I-shaped or T-shaped layouts are limited to minimize process-related mechanical stresses or lithography sensitivity. For example, tapered or rounded corners could minimize current crowding. As shown in FIG. 5A, an I-shaped layout 500 may have tapered regions 502, 504 under the gate 206. As shown, in FIG. 5B, a T-shaped layout 506 may also have a tapered region 508.

As shown in FIG. 6A, an I-shaped layout 600 could also include rounded corners 602, 604. In various embodiments, these rounded corners 602, 604 could follow a Fermi-function shape. As shown in FIG. 6B, a T-shaped layout 606 could similarly use rounded corners or a Fermi-function shape.

Referring now to FIGS. 7-12, one can see same examples of methods for making the structures described above. FIG. 7 shows a flowchart illustrating a somewhat general method, while FIGS. 8-12 show examples of various structures that could correspond to the blocks of the flowchart. Although this method is illustrated and described below as a series of acts or events, it will be appreciated that the present invention is not limited by the illustrated ordering of such acts or events. For example, some acts may occur in different orders and/or concurrently with other acts or events apart from those illustrated and/or described herein, in accordance with the invention. In addition, not all illustrated steps may be required to implement a methodology in accordance with the present invention. Furthermore, the methods according to the present invention may be implemented in association with the devices and systems illustrated and described herein as well as in association with other structures not illustrated.

Referring now to FIG. 7, one can see method 700 starts at block 702 with an un-patterned semiconductor body. In block 704, a shallow trench isolation structure is formed in the semiconductor body to isolate individual devices or groups of devices. In block 706, a well implant is performed. In block 708, a polysilicon gate is formed over the structure. In block 710, implants are performed to form the source/drain regions and the pocket implant regions.

In FIG. 8, one can see a semiconductor substrate 202, which could comprise a Si, GaAs, SiGe, Silicon-on-insulator, or any other semiconductor substrate.

In FIG. 9A-9B, one can see an isolation structure 218 that is formed within the semiconductor body. In FIG. 9A's illustrated embodiment, one can see a top-level view of an I-shaped isolated region 208. FIG. 9B shows a cross sectional view along the cut-away line shown in FIG. 9A.

In FIG. 10A-10B, an ion implant is performed to form a well 204 within the semiconductor substrate. In an embodiment where the substrate is p-type, an n-well could be used to isolate PMOS devices and a p-well could be implanted within the substrate to provide the body for NMOS devices.

In FIGS. 11A-11B (which show a top-view and cross-sectional view, respectively), show a gate structure 206 formed over the semiconductor body. In various embodiments, this gate structure could comprise polysilicon or metal.

In FIGS. 12A-12B show the device after a source/drain implant has been used to form a source region 208 and a drain region 210. An angled pocket implant has also been used to form pocket implant regions 212, 214. In addition, another implant has been used to form source-drain extension regions 222, 224, which could use the same mask as the pocket implant.

Referring now to FIG. 13-16, one can see some graphs that show some performance characteristics of one embodiment of an I-beam device compared to that of a rectangular device. The graphs are in a standard format for matching studies and were performed using a thin gate oxide NMOS device in a 65 nm technology. In these graphs the horizontal axis is (1/√{square root over (TransistorActiveArea)}), and the vertical axis is the standard deviation of the mismatch parameter of interest. Generally speaking, the “best” place to be on each graph is at the lower right-hand corner, where the area is small (compact layout) and the matching is tight (low sigma mismatch distribution).

The layout dimensions of studied in FIGS. 13-16 were as follows. The rectangular devices had (W/L) values of (2/20), (1/10), (0.5, 5), and (0.2/2). By virtue of its large active area, the (W/L)=(2/20) rectangular device corresponds to the data point at the lower left-hand corner of each graph. The I-beam devices were laid out with W₂=W₃=2 um, with varying (W₁/L₁) values of (1/10), (0.5/5), and (0.2/2). The (W₁/L₁)=(1/10) corresponds to the left-most data point in the graphs since it has the largest active area of any of the I-beam devices. Since all of the I-beam devices had pocket regions with a width of 2 um, the I-beam devices are expected to show matching similar to that of the rectangular (2/20) device, if in fact the width of the pocket region does dominate transistor matching.

Four mismatch parameters were analyzed for each device style. More precisely, FIG. 13 shows the voltage threshold (V_T) mismatch; FIG. 14 shows the beta mismatch; FIG. 15 shows the current mismatch for sub-threshold inversion (where V_GS−V_T is approximately equal to 0 mV); and FIG. 16 shows the current mismatch for strong inversion (where V_GS−V_T is approximately equal to 200 mV). For all cases, V_DS=V_DD, so the measurements were in the saturation regime. As shown in FIG. 13-16, the I-beam structures have more compact layout than the (W/L)=(2/20) rectangular device, but they produce similar values of matching, thus showing that the matching of these long-channel devices is largely dominated by the width of the pocket implant regions rather than the area of the bulk region.

Although matched transistors (e.g., transistors 200, 300) and methods for performing operations thereon have been illustrated and described, alterations and/or modifications may be made to these examples. For example, although transistor 200 has been shown as having an n-type bulk region, a p-type source, and a p-type drain (i.e., a PMOS device); in other embodiments the doping conventions could be reversed. For example, the bulk region could be p-type, and the source and drain could be n-type (i.e., an NMOS device). Alternatively, the present invention could be used with an NMOS device that is placed with a p-well or a shallow p-well as the body, such that the body is contained within a deep n-well, isolating the body from a p-type substrate.

Although as described herein, the terms “first region” and “first width” were used to describe a bulk region in one embodiment, these terms also include other structures. For example, these terms could also relate to the source, drain, or pocket implant regions, or they could relate to other structures in other devices (e.g., bipolar transistors). Similarly, the terms “second region”, “second width”, “third region”, “third width”, “fourth region”, “fourth width”, and other related terms could include any other structures and should not be limited to those structures described above. In various embodiments, these regions could be defined without using a shallow trench isolation structure. For example, the first and second regions could be achieved by doping variations or other manners of differentiating between regions.

Although the invention has been illustrated and described with respect to one or more implementations, alterations and/or modifications may be made to the illustrated examples without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components or structures (assemblies, devices, circuits, systems, etc.), the terms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe such components are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any component or structure which performs the specified function of the described component (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations of the invention. In addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “including”, “includes”, “having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description and the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising”.

Claims

1. A semiconductor device formed over a semiconductor body, comprising: source and drain regions formed in the body about lateral edges of a gate electrode and separated from one another by a gate length; anda channel region configured to allow charged carriers to selectively flow between the source and drain regions during operation of the device, the channel region having different widths under the gate electrode, which widths are generally perpendicular to the gate length.

2. The device of claim 1, where an isolation trench defines the widths of the channel region under the gate.

3. The device of claim 1, where channel region has at least one, if not all, of the following three curvatures: tapered, rounded, and fermi function.

4. The device of claim 1, where the channel region comprises a bulk region having a first width; and where the drain region has a second width that is greater than the first width.

5. The device of claim 4, where the channel region further comprises: a pocket implant region laterally disposed between the drain region and the bulk region and having a third width that is greater than the first width.

6. The device of claim 5, where the first and third widths vary from one another as a function of an extent to which the bulk region and pocket implant region can provide matched electrical characteristics.

7. An isolated region of a semiconductor body surrounded by an isolation trench, the isolated region comprising: a first region of the semiconductor body comprising a first set of opposing sidewalls that are adjacent to the isolation trench and separated from one another by a first width, the first region having a first doping conductivity; anda second region of the semiconductor body comprising a second set of opposing sidewalls that are adjacent to the isolation trench and separated from one another by a second width that is greater than the first width, the second region having a second doping conductivity that is opposite the first doping conductivity.

8. The isolated region of claim 7, further comprising: a pocket implant region between the first region and the second region, the pocket implant region comprising opposing sidewalls that are separated from one another by approximately the second width and having the first doping conductivity.

9. The isolated region of claim 7, further comprising: a third region comprising a third set of opposing sidewalls that are adjacent to the isolation trench and separated from one another by a third width, the third region having the second doping conductivity.

10. The isolated region of claim 9, where the third width is approximately equal to the first width.

11. The isolated region of claim 9, where the third width is approximately equal to the second width.

12. The isolated region of claim 9, where the third width is greater than the first width and less than the second width.

13. An integrated circuit formed over a semiconductor body, comprising: a semiconductor device that comprises: a gate electrode formed over the semiconductor body;a source region and a drain region formed in the body and disposed about opposing lateral edges of the gate electrode;an isolation trench that surrounds an isolated region of the semiconductor body, which isolated region comprises: a first set of opposing sidewalls separated by a first width under the gate electrode, and a second set of opposing sidewalls separated by a second width under the gate electrode, the second width being greater than the first width.

14. The integrated circuit of claim 13, where the isolated region further comprises: a third set of opposing sidewalls associated with the drain region and separated by approximately the second width.

15. The integrated circuit of claim 14, where the isolated region further comprises: a fourth set of opposing sidewalls associated with the source region and separated by a fourth width that is approximately equal to the first width.

16. The integrated circuit of claim 13, where the isolated region further comprises: pocket implant regions formed in the semiconductor body near the opposing lateral edges of the gate electrode.

17. The integrated circuit of claim 16, where at least one of the pocket implant regions has approximately the second width.

18. The integrated circuit of claim 13, further comprising: a second semiconductor device that comprises: another gate electrode formed over the semiconductor body;another source region and another drain region formed in the body and disposed about opposing lateral edges of the another gate electrode;another isolated region of the semiconductor body, which another isolated region has a geometry that matches that of the isolated region.

19. The integrated circuit of claim 18, where the isolated region and the another isolated region have at least one, if not all, of the following two geometries: i-shaped and t-shaped.

20. An integrated circuit, comprising: a first matched transistor, comprising: first source and drain regions formed about lateral edges of a first gate electrode, the first source and drain regions separated from one another by a first channel region having different widths under the first gate electrode;a second matched transistor, comprising: second source and drain regions formed about lateral edges of a second gate electrode, the second source and drain regions separated from one another by a second channel region having different widths under the second gate electrode; andanalog circuitry associated with the first and second matched transistors, which analog circuitry utilizes a matching characteristic of the first and second matched transistors to facilitate analog functionality.