The embodiments of the present disclosure relate to semiconductor manufacturing, and in particular to a semiconductor device having a super junction structure and a method for forming the same.
A semiconductor device includes a substrate and a circuit component disposed over the substrate. Semiconductor devices are widely used in various electronic applications, such as personal computers, mobile phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. These continuously evolving semiconductor devices continue to influence and improve the way people live.
Since a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) has a high switching speed, high input impedance, low driving power, excellent high-frequency characteristics, and a large, safe operating area, as well as other advantages, the range of applications is becoming wider, especially as manufacturing technologies are becoming more mature.
Subsequently, a MOSFET having a super junction structure, such as a vertically diffused metal oxide semiconductor (VDMOS) device, has been developed, which changes the physical limitations of the depletion region and the withstand voltage of a conventional MOSFET, and achieves the advantages of reducing on-resistance (Ron). However, for vertical diffusion metal oxide semiconductor devices, vertical channel design and process complexity also limit their application.
In accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, a semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes a charge-absorbing structure disposed over a substrate; an insulating layer disposed over the charge-absorbing structure; a semiconductor layer disposed over the insulating layer; a plurality of first doped regions and a plurality of second doped regions disposed in the semiconductor layer, wherein the first doped regions and second doped regions extend in a first direction and are alternately arranged along a second direction that is different than the first direction, and the plurality of first doped regions and the plurality of second doped regions have different conductivity types; a source and a drain disposed respectively on opposite sides of the plurality of first doped regions and the plurality of second doped regions which are alternately arranged and the source and the drain extend in the second direction; and a gate disposed on the plurality of first doped regions and the plurality of second doped regions which are alternately arranged and the gate extends in the second direction.
In some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure includes polycrystalline silicon.
In some embodiments, the thickness of the charge-absorbing structure is in a range from 100 nm to 1000 nm.
In some embodiments, the semiconductor device further includes a buffer layer encapsulating the entire substrate.
In some embodiments, the buffer layer includes an oxide, a nitride, or a combination thereof.
In some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure encapsulates the entire substrate and the buffer layer encapsulates the charge-absorbing structure.
In some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure encapsulates the entire substrate and the buffer layer is located between the substrate and the charge-absorbing structure.
In some embodiments, the semiconductor device further includes an additional buffer layer encapsulating the charge-absorbing structure.
In some embodiments, the semiconductor device further includes a pair of additional charge-absorbing structures passing through the insulating layer to contact the charge-absorbing structure.
In some embodiments, the width of each additional charge-absorbing structure is in a range from 0.5 μm to 2 μm.
In accordance with another embodiments of the present disclosure, a method of forming a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes forming a charge-absorbing structure on a substrate; forming an insulating layer over the charge-absorbing structure and a semiconductor layer over the insulating layer; forming a mask layer having a plurality of openings over the semiconductor layer; implanting a portion of the semiconductor layer through the plurality of openings to form a plurality of first doped regions having a first conductivity type, wherein the first doped regions extend in a first direction; forming a plurality of field oxides through the plurality of openings to respectively cover the plurality of first doped regions; after forming the plurality of field oxides, removing the mask layer; implanting another portion of the semiconductor layer with the plurality of field oxides as masks to form a plurality of second doped regions having a second conductivity type that is different than the first conductivity type, wherein the second doped regions extend in the first direction and are alternately arranged with the first doped region along the second direction that is different than the first direction; and after forming the plurality of second doped regions, removing the plurality of field oxides.
In some embodiments, the material of the plurality of field oxides is different than the material of the mask layer.
In some embodiments, the ratio of the thickness of the mask layer to the thickness of one of the field oxides is in a range from 5:1 to 10:1.
In some embodiments, the method further includes forming a source and a drain along the second direction on both sides of the first doped regions and the second doped regions which are alternately arranged, respectively; and forming a gate on the semiconductor layer and along the second direction.
In some embodiments, the method further includes forming a buffer layer which encapsulates the entire substrate.
In some embodiments, forming the buffer layer includes depositing an oxide, a nitride, or a combination thereof.
In some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure encapsulates the entire substrate and the buffer layer encapsulates the entire charge-absorbing structure.
In some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure encapsulates the entire substrate, and a buffer layer is located between the charge-absorbing structure and the substrate.
In some embodiments, the method further includes forming an additional buffer layer which encapsulates the entire charge-absorbing structure.
In some embodiments, the method further includes forming a pair of additional charge-absorbing structures which pass through the insulating layer to contact the charge-absorbing structure.
The disclosure can be more fully understood from the following detailed description when read with the accompanying figures. It is worth noting that, in accordance with standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale and are for illustrative purposes only. In fact, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of the features of the present disclosure.
The following outlines several embodiments so that those skilled in the art may better understand the present disclosure. However, these embodiments are examples only and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. It is understandable that those skilled in the art may adjust the embodiments described below according to requirements, for example, changing the sequences of processes and/or including more or fewer steps than described herein.
Furthermore, other elements may be added on the basis of the embodiments described below. For example, the description of “forming a second element on a first element” may include embodiments in which the first element is in direct contact with the second element, and may also include embodiments in which additional elements are disposed between the first element and the second element such that the first element and the second element are not in direct contact, and spatially relative descriptors of the first element and the second element may change as the device is operated or used in different orientations.
Hereinafter, a semiconductor device and a method of forming the same will be described in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, and are particularly applicable to a semiconductor device having a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The present disclosure provides a novel method of forming a super junction structure that accurately controls ion implanted regions such that a semiconductor device having an insulator-on-insulator semiconductor substrate has a new super junction structure to reduce channel length and improve the breakdown voltage and on-resistance. Furthermore, the present disclosure provides a charge-absorbing structure, which can reduce a parasitic effect of a SOI substrate.
Then, a charge-absorbing structure 130 is disposed over the substrate 102 in accordance with some embodiments. The charge-absorbing structure 130 in the semiconductor device 100 can reduce parasitic effects at high frequency operation, and thus is particularly suitable for the semiconductor device 100 having an SOI substrate which operates at a high voltage (for example, higher than 30 volts).
In some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure 130 may include polysilicon, and the thickness of the charge-absorbing structure 130 may be in a range from about 100 nanometers (nm) to about 1000 nm, such as about 300 nm to about 500 nm. In some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure 130 may be formed by a deposition process, such as a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process or other suitable deposition process.
Then, an insulating layer 104 is disposed over the charge-absorbing structure 130 and a semiconductor layer 106 is disposed over the insulating layer 104, in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the insulating layer 104 may include a buried dielectric layer, such as buried oxide (BOX), buried silicon oxide (SiO2), buried silicon nitride (SiN), the like, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the thickness of the insulating layer 104 may be in a range from about 3 microns (μm) to about 10 μm, such as from about 4 μm to about 6 μm.
In some embodiments, the semiconductor layer 106 may include silicon, and the thickness of the semiconductor layer 106 may be in a range from about 0.5 μm to about 4 μm, such as from about 1 μm to about 1.5 μm.
In some embodiments, the insulating layer 104 and the semiconductor layer 106 may be formed by a wafer bonding process, an epitaxial layer transfer (ELTRAN) process, the like, or a combination thereof.
In embodiments using a wafer bonding process, the insulating layer 104 is directly bonded to the semiconductor layer 106, and then both are bonded to the substrate 102 on which the charge-absorbing structure 130 has been formed. The semiconductor layer 106 may be thinned before being bonded to the substrate 102.
In embodiments using an ELTRAN process, the semiconductor layer 106 is epitaxially grown on a seed layer (not illustrated), and the semiconductor layer 106 is oxidized to form the insulating layer 104. After the insulating layer 104 is bonded to the substrate 102 on which the charge-absorbing structure 130 has been formed, the seed layer is removed.
Then, a sacrificial layer 108 is formed over the semiconductor layer 106 in accordance with some embodiments. The sacrificial layer 108 can prevent a surface of the semiconductor layer 106 from being contaminated, and can reduce the damage caused by the subsequent ion implantation process on the semiconductor layer 106, and also help control the depth of dopants into the semiconductor layer 106. In some embodiments, the sacrificial layer 108 may be formed by a thermal oxide process or other suitable process, and the sacrificial layer 108 may include an oxide, such as silicon oxide. In some embodiments, the thickness of the sacrificial layer 108 may be in a range from about 10 angstroms (Å) to about 300 Å, such as from about 150 Å to about 200 Å. Within this thickness range, the sacrificial layer 108 can protect the surface of the semiconductor layer 106 without interfering with subsequent ion implantation processes.
Then, a mask layer 110 is formed over the sacrificial layer 108, in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the mask layer 110 may include a hard mask such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, silicon carbide, silicon carbonitride, the like, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the mask layer 110 may be formed by a deposition process, such as a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, a silicon on glass (SOG) process, an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, a combination thereof, or any suitable deposition process.
Then, the mask layer 110 is patterned to form a plurality of openings 113 exposing the underlying layers, wherein the openings 113 correspond to subsequent doped regions, as illustrated in
Then, a first implant process 114 is performed on the semiconductor layer 106 through the openings 113 to form a plurality of first doped regions 112 in a portion of the semiconductor layer 106, wherein the first doped regions 112 have a first conductivity type. In some embodiments, the first implant process 114 may be performed using a p-type dopant or an n-type dopant. For example, the p-type dopant may be boron, aluminum, gallium, BF2, the like, or a combination thereof, and the n-type dopant may be nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, the like, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the first implant process 114 has an ion implantation concentration in the range from about 1×1014 cm−2 to about 1×1017 cm−2, such as from about 5×1015 cm−2 to about 1×1016 cm−2.
Then, a plurality of field oxides 116 are formed in the exposed portions of the sacrificial layer 108 through the openings 113 of the mask layer 110, as illustrated in
According to some embodiments, the ratio of the thickness of the mask layer 110 to the thickness of one of the field oxides 116 is in a range from about 5:1 to about 10:1, such as from about 7:1 to about 8:1. Forming the field oxide 116 may result in a bird's beak structure at the edge of the field oxide 116, and within this thickness ratio range, the stress forming the field oxide 116 can be reduced, and the area forming the bird's beak structure can be reduced, and the uniformity of ion implantation concentration can be improved.
Then, the mask layer 110 is removed, as illustrated in
As previously discussed, the field oxide 116 can protect the first doped region 112 during the second implant process 118, avoiding the dopants of the second implant process 118 implanting into the first doped region 112. Therefore, the first doped regions 112 and the second doped regions 120 which are alternately arranged may be formed, and a sidewall of the plurality of second doped regions 120 are substantially aligned with a sidewall of the plurality of field oxides 116.
Then, the sacrificial layer 108 and the field oxide 116 are removed to expose the first doped region 112 and the second doped region 120, as illustrated in
By using the mask layer 110 and the field oxide 116 in conjunction with the first implant process 114 and the second implant process 118, the ion implant region can be precisely controlled to form the first doped regions 112 and the second doped regions 120 which are self-aligned to avoid an offset region due to photolithography shift, and to form the first doped regions 112 and the second doped regions 120 which are alternately arranged in the semiconductor device 100.
In addition, due to the accuracy achievable by the method of the present disclosure, the breakdown voltage and the on-resistance of the semiconductor device 100 can be optimized while reducing the channel length of the semiconductor device 100, so that the semiconductor device 100 can be more widely used, and is beneficial for integration with a radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit (IC).
As illustrated in
According to some embodiments, a source 122, a drain 124, and a gate are disposed in the semiconductor device 200, wherein the gate includes a gate dielectric 126 and a gate electrode 128 over the gate dielectric 126, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, the source 122 and the drain 124 may be formed using an ion implantation process with a mask layer (not illustrated). In some embodiments, the mask layer may be a photoresist such as a positive photoresist or a negative photoresist. In other embodiments, the mask layer may be a hard mask such as silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, silicon carbide, silicon carbonitride, the like, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the mask layer may formed by spin-on coating, CVD, ALD, the like, or a combination thereof, and the mask layer may be patterned by suitable photolithography technology.
The source 122 and the drain 124 have the same conductivity type. In embodiments where the MOS device is p-type (PMOS), the source 122 and the drain 124 are p-type. In embodiments where the MOS device is an n-type (NMOS), the source 122 and the drain 124 are n-type. In some embodiments, the source 122 and the drain 124 may be formed simultaneously by an ion implantation process. In other embodiments, the source 122 and the drain 124 may be formed separately by different ion implantation processes.
The doping concentration of the source 122 and the drain 124 may be greater than or equal to the doping concentration of the first doped region 112 and the second doped region 120. In some embodiments, the source 122 and the drain 124 may each independently have a doping concentration of about 1×1014 cm−3 to about 5×1017 cm−3. The source 122 and the drain 124 may be doped by the ion implantation of the first doped region 112 or the second doped region 120.
In some embodiments, the gate dielectric 126 may include an oxide, such as silicon oxide. In some embodiments, the gate dielectric 126 may include a high-k dielectric material, that is, a dielectric material having a dielectric constant greater than 3.9. For example, the gate dielectric 126 may include HfO2, LaO2, TiO2, ZrO2, Al2O3, Ta2O3, HfZrO, ZrSiO2, HfSiO4, the like, or a combination thereof. The gate dielectric 126 may be formed by thermal oxidation, CVD, ALD, the like, or a combination thereof.
Then, the gate electrode 128 is formed over the gate dielectric 126. In some embodiments, the gate electrode 128 may be formed by physical vapor deposition (PVD), CVD, ALD, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), liquid phase epitaxy (LPE), vapor phase epitaxy (VPE), the like, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the gate electrode 128 may include a conductive material such as a metal, a metal nitride, a metal oxide, a metal silicide, a semiconductor material, the like, or a combination thereof. For example, the metal may be gold (Au), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), iridium (Ir), titanium (Ti), chromium (Cr), tungsten (W), aluminum (Al), copper (Cu) the like, an alloy thereof, a multilayer thereof, or a combination thereof, and the semiconductor material may include poly-Si, poly-Ge, poly-SiGe, the like, or a combination thereof.
Although the order in which the source 122, the drain 124, the gate dielectric 126, and the gate electrode 128 are formed as described above, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and these elements may be formed in other order of formation. In addition, the source 122, the drain 124, the gate dielectric 126, and the gate electrode 128 may be formed after the first doped region 112 and the second doped region 120 are formed, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and these elements may use other order of formation.
In addition, shapes of the source 122, the drain 124, the gate dielectric 126, and the gate electrode 128 are not limited to the vertical sidewalls as illustrated in the figures, and may be inclined sidewalls or sidewalls having other shape. In addition, as illustrated in
The substrate 102 and the charge-absorbing structure 130 of the present disclosure may also have other configurations to enhance the reliability of the semiconductor device. Other example configurations of substrate 102 and charge-absorbing structure 130 are described below in accordance with some embodiments. For simplicity, the same elements will be described by the same symbols, and the formation and materials of these elements are described above, and therefore will not be described again.
According to some embodiments, the substrate 102 of the semiconductor device 300 includes a buffer layer 132 which encapsulates the entire substrate 102, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, the buffer layer 132 includes an oxide, a nitride, the like, or a combination thereof. For example, the buffer layer 132 may include silicon oxide. According to some embodiments, the buffer layer 132 may be formed by a deposition process, such as a LPCVD process, prior to forming the charge-absorbing structure 130. In some embodiments, the buffer layer 132 may have a thickness in a range from about 500 Å to about 2000 Å, such as from about 1000 Å to about 1200 Å. Under this thickness range, the buffer layer 132 can relieve the lattice mismatch between different layers, improve the crystal quality, and would not cause defects due to the stress caused by its own thickness.
According to some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure 130 of the semiconductor device 400 encapsulates the entire substrate 102, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, the charge-absorbing structure 130 may be formed by a deposition process, such as a LPCVD process. Although the thickness of the vertical portion of the charge-absorbing structure 130 and the thickness of the horizontal portion are substantially the same as illustrated, the present disclosure is not limited thereto, and the thickness of the vertical portion may be larger or smaller than the thickness of the horizontal portion. In some embodiments, the thickness of the vertical portion of the charge-absorbing structure 130 and the thickness of the horizontal portion may each independently in a range from about 100 nm to about 1000 nm. For example, the vertical portion has a thickness of between 250 nm and 450 nm and the horizontal portion has a thickness of between 300 nm and 500 nm.
Furthermore, the buffer layer 132 may be disposed between the substrate 102 and the charge-absorbing structure 130 to relieve the lattice mismatch between the substrate 102 and the charge-absorbing structure 130, and to repair surface defects of the substrate 102. In addition, an additional buffer layer 134 may be disposed on the surface of the charge-absorbing structure 130 to relieve the lattice mismatch between the charge-absorbing structure 130 and other layers, and to repair surface defects of the charge-absorbing structure 130. The material and formation method of the buffer layer 134 may be selected from the material and formation method of the buffer layer 132, but other materials and formation methods may also be used. It should be noted that the semiconductor device 400 having both of the buffer layer 132 and the buffer layer 134 is merely illustrative and not limiting. For example, only one of the buffer layer 132 and the buffer layer 134 may be disposed.
According to some embodiments, the semiconductor device 500 includes a pair of additional charge-absorbing structures 136 that pass through the insulating layer 104 to contact the charge-absorbing structure 130, as illustrated in
According to some embodiments, a pair of isolation structures 138 is disposed on both sides of the first doped region 112 (refer to
According to some embodiments, a dielectric layer 140 is disposed over the semiconductor layer 106, as illustrated in
According to some embodiments, interconnect structures 142, 144, and 146 are formed through the dielectric layer 140 to electrically connect the source 122, the gate electrode 128, and the drain 124, respectively, as illustrated in
In some embodiments, the trenches used to form the interconnect structures 142, 144, and 146 and the trenches used to form the charge-absorbing structure 136 may be simultaneously etched by a single patterning process, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In other embodiments, the trenches for forming the interconnect structures 142, 144, and 146 and the trenches for forming the charge-absorbing structure 136 may be separately etched by different patterning processes, and the charge-absorbing structures 136 may be formed before or after the formation of the interconnect structures 142, 144, and 146.
Since the first doped regions 112 (refer to
According to some embodiments, the present disclosure forms a semiconductor device having a super junction structure by using an ion implantation process with a mask layer and a field oxide, the ion implantation region can be precisely controlled through a self-alignment method when forming the first doped region and the second doped region which are alternately arranged to avoid an offset region due to photolithography shift, thereby improving the yield of the semiconductor device. In addition, due to the precision of the method, the breakdown voltage and the on-resistance can be optimized while reducing the channel length of the semiconductor device, and thus it is particularly suitable for a semiconductor device having a SOI substrate.
In addition, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a charge-absorbing structure is disposed on a semiconductor device to reduce scattering phenomenon of carrier when the SOI substrate is applied to high frequency operation, thereby improving reliability of the semiconductor device.
While the present disclosure has been described above by various embodiments, these embodiments are not intended to limit the disclosure. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they may make various changes, substitutions and alterations based on the embodiments of the present disclosure to realize the same purposes and/or advantages as the various embodiments described herein. Those skilled in the art should also appreciate that such design or modification practiced does not depart from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present disclosure is defined as the subject matter set forth in the appended claims.
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Taiwanese Office Action and Search Report for Taiwanese Application No. 108106028, dated Aug. 13, 2019. |