1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit device, in particular, to an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device for SOI structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor integrated circuit device including a resistor circuit composed of a resistor made of polysilicon or the like, an input or output protection element made up of a diode or a MOS transistor is generally disposed between an internal circuit and an external input/output terminal to prevent breakdown of internal elements composing the internal circuit when an excess amount of current flows into the circuit from outside by static electricity.
With the above configuration, when a negative overvoltage is applied to the input or output terminal, for example, a forward voltage is attained at a PN junction of one of the NMOS transistors of the protection elements 20, so current flows in the protective NMOS transistor to protect the internal element. In contrast, when a positive overvoltage is applied, current flows in one the protective NMOS transistors by avalanche breakdown at the PN junction of the NMOS transistor in the protection elements 20. In this way, overcurrent is directly guided to a grounded substrate by way of the input/output protection element and thus kept from flowing in the internal element.
Input/output protection for an NMOS transistor 113 composing the internal element 10 in
Generally a device element formed on an SOI substrate, especially, on a thin-film SOI substrate is easy to break down by heat generation due to overcurrent since a buried insulating film and an isolation insulating film surround it, and it has low heat dissipation ability. As a result, an SOI device is structurally weak against ESD.
It follows that the ESD protection element formed on an SOI semiconductor thin film easily breaks down. To overcome such a problem, various devices for attaining a sufficient ESD strength have been hitherto made. For example, in a semiconductor integrated circuit device where a CMOS buffer ESD protection circuit is formed on an SOI substrate as an input protection element for an internal element, a PNP or NPN diode is additionally provided in front of the CMOS buffer ESD-protection circuit to enhance the ESD strength (see JP 3447372 B (p. 6, FIG. 2), for example).
As mentioned above, the formation of the ESD protection element on the SOI substrate involves enlarging the protection element or increasing the number of protection elements for attaining a sufficient ESD strength, and is disadvantageous in extension of the protection circuit and chip area.
Meanwhile, as one way to attain the sufficient ESD strength, JP 04-345064 A (p. 9, FIG. 1) and JP 08-181219 A (p. 5, FIG. 1) disclose a semiconductor integrated circuit device where an internal element 10 is formed in an SOI semiconductor thin film and an input protection element is formed on a semiconductor support substrate, for example.
However, when the semiconductor thin film or buried insulating film of the SOI substrate is partially removed to expose the semiconductor support substrate, and the protection element is formed on the exposed portion, the protection element itself can secure a sufficient ESD strength but a problem comes out that the internal element easily breaks down.
This is because, in a general circuit design, when an ESD noise enters, the noise is supposed to get out through the ESD protection element in advance to the internal element. However, when the withstand voltage of the ESD protection element on the semiconductor support substrate is too high, the protection element cannot react to the ESD noise introduced from the output terminal 302, and the noise enters the internal element on the SOI semiconductor thin film resulting in the breakdown of the internal element. Accordingly the ESD protection element on the semiconductor support substrate should be designed to ensure high breakdown strength in one-way and keep the withstand voltage of the ESD protection lower than that of the internal element.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention employs the following means.
(1) A semiconductor integrated circuit device includes: a CMOS element composed of a first X-channel MOS transistor and a first P-channel MOS transistor that are formed on a semiconductor thin film on an insulating film formed on a semiconductor support substrate with the semiconductor thin film and the insulating film composing a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate; a resistor; and a second N-channel MOS transistor serving as an ESD protection element having an electrostatic discharge ability and protecting one of an input terminal and an output terminal, in which a gate electrode of the first N-channel MOS transistor serving as an active element and formed on the semiconductor thin film has an N-type conductivity, a gate electrode of the first P-channel MOS transistor has a P-type conductivity, and a gate electrode of the second N-channel MOS transistor serving as the ESD protection element has a P-type conductivity.
(2) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, the second N-channel MOS transistor as the ESD protection element is formed on the semiconductor support substrate exposed by removing a part of the semiconductor thin film of the SOI substrate and a buried insulating film.
(3) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, an N-type gate electrode of the first N-channel MOS transistor, a P-type gate electrode of the first P-channel MOS transistor, and a gate electrode of the second N-channel MOS transistor serving as the ESD protection elements are formed of a first polysilicon.
(4) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device according to the item (1) or (2), an N-type gate electrode of the first N-channel MOS transistor, a P-type gate electrode of the first P-channel MOS transistor, and a P-type gate electrode of the second N-channel MOS transistor serving as the ESD protection element have a polycide structure as a laminate structure of a first polysilicon and high melting-point metal silicide.
(5) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, the resistor is formed of a second polysilicon whose thickness is different from the first polysilicon forming the gate electrodes of the first N-channel MOS transistor and the first P-channel MOS transistor as the active elements, and the second N-channel MOS transistor as the ESD protection-element.
(6) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, the resistor is made of single-crystal silicon for the semiconductor thin film.
(7) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, the resistor is a thin-film metal resistor made of an Ni—Cr alloy, or chromium silicide, molybdenum silicide, or β-ferrite silicide.
(8) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, the semiconductor thin film forming the SOI substrate has a thickness of 0.05 μm to 0.2 μm.
(9) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, the insulating film forming the SOI substrate has a thickness of 0.1 μm to 0.5 μm.
(10) In the semiconductor integrated circuit device, the insulating film forming the SOI substrate is made of an insulating material including glass, sapphire, or ceramics including silicon oxide or silicon nitride.
As set forth above, in the semiconductor integrated circuit device, the gate electrode of the NMOS transistor as an internal element formed on the semiconductor thin film has N-type conductivity, while the gate electrode of the protection NMOS transistor as an ESD input/output protection element formed on the semiconductor support substrate has P-type conductivity, making it possible to reduce leak current and to shorten the gate length of the protection NMOS transistor. Ensuring a high ESD breakdown strength owing to the formation on the support substrate, the protection NMOS transistor absorbs ESD noise first to protect an input/output terminal of the internal element on the semiconductor thin film, which is weak against the ESD noise, especially, to protect the output terminal. In particular, a protection effect can be greatly exerted in a power management semiconductor integrated circuit device or analog semiconductor integrated circuit device in which electrical input/output characteristics are important.
In the accompanying drawings:
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
A silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate is composed of, for example, a semiconductor support substrate 101 of a P-type conductivity, which is made of single crystal, a buried insulating film 103, and a semiconductor thin film 102 of a P-type conductivity, which is made of single crystal and is used to form elements. Formed on the P-type semiconductor thin film 102 are a CMOS inverter as an internal element 10 composed of a first N-channel MOS transistor (hereinafter abbreviated to “NMOS”) 113 and a first P-channel MOS transistor (hereinafter abbreviated to “PMOS”) 112, and a P− resistor 114 made of polysilicon as a resistor element 30. However, the internal element 10 is not limited to the CMOS inverter but can be arbitral set.
Further formed on the semiconductor support substrate 101 is an ESD protective transistor composed of a second NMOS transistor as a protection element (hereinafter referred to as “protection NMOS transistor”) 111 to thereby complete a semiconductor integrated circuit device.
A thin-film SOI device, especially, a fully depleted (FD) SOI device, which is ideal for low-voltage operation or low power consumption, employs a so-called homopolar gate structure for the CMOS structure. This homopolar gate structure is such that an N+ polysilicon 109 forms a gate electrode of the NMOS transistor 113, and P+ polysilicon forms a gate electrode of the PMOS transistor 112. The CMOS inverter of
To begin with, the NMOS transistor 113 is composed of an N+ impurity diffusion layer 105 serving as a source/drain region and formed in the P-type semiconductor thin film 102, and a gate electrode made of the N+ polysilicon 109 formed on a gate insulating film 107 as a silicon oxide film, for example. The PMOS transistor 112 is composed of a P+ impurity diffusion layer 106 serving as a source/drain region formed in an N-type well formed in the P-type semiconductor thin film, and the gate electrode made of a P+ polysilicon 110 formed on the gate insulating film 107 made of, for example, silicon oxide. The NMOS transistor 113 and the PMOS transistor 112 are completely isolated from each other by means of a field insulating film 108 formed through local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS method), for example, and the buried insulating film 103.
In addition, the P− resistor of a high resistance constituting the resistor element 30 is formed on the field insulating film, for example, which is used for a bleeder voltage divider circuit for dividing voltage as an analog circuit or a CR circuit for setting a time constant. In this embodiment, the P− resistor is made of polysilicon.
Next, the protection NMOS transistor 111 forming the protection element 20 is composed of an N+ impurity diffusion layer 105 serving as a source/drain region formed on the exposed semiconductor support substrate where the semiconductor thin film 102 and the buried insulating film 103 are partially removed to expose the semiconductor Support substrate 101, and a gate electrode made of polysilicon (P+ polysilicon 110), whose conductivity is inverse to that of the NMOS transistor 113 of the internal element, disposed on a gate insulating film 107 made of oxide film for example.
In the conventional structure of
In contrast, as in the embodiment of
Note that the P+ polysilicon 110 forming the P-type gate electrode contains acceptor impurities such as boron or BF2 in a concentration of 1×1018 atoms/cm3 or higher. The N+ polysilicon 109 forming the N-type gate electrode contains donor impurities such as phosphorous or arsenic in a concentration of 1×1018 atoms/cm3 or higher.
The N+ impurity diffusion layers 105 as the source/drain region of the NMOS transistor 113 of the internal element 10 and the protection NMOS transistor 111 of the protection element 20 contain phosphorous or arsenic at a concentration of 1×1019 atoms/cm3 or higher. At this time, the N+ impurity diffusion layers 105 of the NMOS transistor 113 and the protection NMOS transistor 111 may both be formed of phosphorous or arsenic. Alternatively, the N+ impurity diffusion layer 105 of the NMOS transistor 113 may be formed of arsenic, while the N+ impurity diffusion layer 105 of the protection NMOS transistor 111 may be formed of phosphorous, vise versa.
The P+ impurity diffusion layer 106 as the source/drain region of the PMOS transistor 112 may be formed of boron or BF2 at a concentration of 1×1019 atoms/cm3 or higher.
The thicknesses of the semiconductor thin film 102 and buried insulating film 103 of the SOI substrate are determined according to its operation voltage. The buried insulating film 103 is mainly made of a silicon oxide film with the thickness of 0.1 μm to 0.5 μm. Note that the buried insulating film can be made of glass, sapphire, silicon nitride film, or the like. The thickness of the semiconductor thin film 102 is determined according to the function and performance of the fully depleted (FD) SOT device as a thin-film SOI device, and is set to 0.05 μm to 0.2 μm.
Further, in the embodiment of
However, as shown in
In addition, the MOS transistor operation itself depends on the work function difference between the semiconductor thin film, and the N+ polysilicon 109 and the P+ polysilicon 110, whereby the semiconductor device can improve its performance accordingly as the gate electrode resistance is lowered.
Referring next to FIGS. 4 to 7, description will be made of another structure of the semiconductor integrated circuit device according to the embodiment of the present invention as shown in
The structure illustrated in
Since highly accurate divided voltage by bleeder voltage divider circuit is needed in analog circuit, high accuracy in resistance ratio is required for a bleeder resistor. For example, with a voltage detector (hereinafter, referred to as “VD”) or the like, a resistor circuit occupies a very large area relative to the entire chip area. Thus, if the area of the resistor element can be reduced with high precision, the chip are a accordingly reduces, enabling cost reduction.
When the resistor is formed using the semiconductor thin film of the SOI substrate as the single-crystal silicon, no crystal grain boundary exist in the resistor, so the resistor is completely free of a resistance variation dependent on the grain boundary, and it is possible to both increase a resistance of the resistor and reduce an area of the resistor. As a result, such a resistor effectively functions. Note that the semiconductor integrated circuit device according to the embodiment of the present invention as shown in
In the embodiment shown in
The embodiment mode of the present invention has been described by way of embodiments employing the SOI substrate made up of the P-type semiconductor support substrate and the P-type semiconductor thin film. However, an SOI substrate composed of an N-type semiconductor support substrate and an N-type semiconductor thin film may be used. At this time, it is possible to set the withstand voltage for the ESD protection lower than the withstand voltage for the internal element of the thin-film SOI device while securing the high ESD breakdown strength, and dissipate the ESD noise first from the internal element as in the above-mentioned example or principles for an protection NMOS transistor including an N-type substrate, a P-type well, and a P+ gate and formed on the N-type semiconductor support substrate.
In addition, examples of the SOI substrate include a bonded SOI substrate manufactured by bonding semiconductor thin films forming an element, and a SIMOX substrate manufactured by implanting oxygen ions into a semiconductor substrate, followed by heat treatment to form a buried oxide film, both of which can be used in the present invention. Further, in the case of using the bonded SOI substrate, the semiconductor thin film and the semiconductor substrate may be different in conductivity.
The present invention can be used for improving electrostatic discharge (ESD) breakdown characteristics of the fully depleted SOI CMOS semiconductor device including the resistor circuit. In particular, the present invention can be used for improving electrostatic discharge (ESD) characteristics of a power management semiconductor integrated circuit device such as a voltage detector (VD), a voltage regulator (hereinafter referred to as “VR”), a switching regulator (hereinafter, referred to as “SWR”), or a switched capacitor, and an analog semiconductor integrated circuit device such as an operational amplifier or a comparator.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2004-207225 | Jul 2004 | JP | national |