This application is based upon and claims benefit of priority from the Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-51780, filed on Mar. 8, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a semiconductor storage device and a manufacturing method for a semiconductor storage device.
Regarding a semiconductor storage device such as a NAND flash memory, there has been proposed a configuration where a floating gate of a memory cell transistor includes a lower floating gate, an upper floating gate, and an inter-gate insulating film provided between the lower floating gate and the upper floating gate. With such a configuration formed, it is possible to make a memory cell density higher while suppressing deterioration in writing characteristics of the memory cell transistor, an adjacent cell interfering effect, an electric charge escape and the like.
A select transistor of a conventional NAND flash memory has a configuration where a groove (opening) is provided in an insulating film between a first electrode layer corresponding to a floating gate and a second electrode layer corresponding to a control gate, to connect between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer. When the floating gate of the memory cell transistor is configured to have the lower floating gate, the upper floating gate and the inter-gate insulating film provided between the lower floating gate and the upper floating gate as described above, the first electrode layer of the select transistor is similarly configured to have the lower electrode layer, the upper electrode layer and the insulating film provided between the lower electrode layer and the upper electrode layer. In the select transistor with such a configuration, since the lower electrode layer holds an electric charge as does the floating gate, a threshold voltage may change, to bring about an erroneous operation. Further, it has been necessary to apply a voltage for a total of a tunnel insulating film and the insulating film provided between the lower electrode layer and the upper electrode layer, thus increasing power consumption. Hence the higher density of the memory cell has induced deterioration in characteristics of the select transistor.
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor storage device comprises a memory cell transistor including a first insulating film, a first floating gate, a second insulating film, a second floating gate, a third insulating film and a control gate which are sequentially formed on a substrate, and a select transistor including a fourth insulating film, a first electrode layer, a fifth insulating film, a second electrode layer, a sixth insulating film and a third electrode layer which are sequentially formed on the substrate. Openings are provided in at least parts of the fifth insulating film and the sixth insulating film. The first electrode layer, the second electrode layer and the third electrode layer are electrically connected via the openings.
Embodiments will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
A point of intersection between the bit line BL and the word line WL is provided with a memory cell transistor. Further, a point of intersection between the bit line BL and the select line S is provided with a select transistor. The memory cell transistor is electrically connected to the bit line BL and the word line WL. Moreover, the select transistor is electrically connected to the bit line BL and the select line S.
As shown in
As shown in
The IPD film 115a is formed on the upper floating gate 114a and the element separated region 130. The control gate 116a is formed on this IPD film 115a.
As shown in
However, in the select transistor ST, openings are formed in part of the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b and part of the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b, to connect among the first electrode layer 112b, the second electrode layer 114b and the third electrode layer 116b.
When the opening is not provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b, the first electrode layer 112b holds an electric charge as does the floating gate, which may cause a change in threshold voltage of the select transistor ST, to bring about an erroneous operation. Further, when the opening is not provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b, driving the select transistor ST necessitates application of a voltage corresponding to a total of the tunnel insulating film 111b and the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b, thus increasing power consumption.
As opposed to this, in the present embodiment, the opening is formed in part of the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b, to connect among the first electrode layer 112b, the second electrode layer 114b and the third electrode layer 116b, and hence the first electrode layer 112b does not hold an electric charge as does the floating gate, allowing prevention of a threshold voltage of the select transistor ST from changing and an erroneous operation from occurring. Further, a voltage corresponding to the tunnel insulating film 111b may be applied for driving the select transistor ST, thus allowing suppression of power consumption. A size of the opening of the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b is not particularly restricted, and the opening may have the same size as the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b, namely, the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b may be omitted.
Further, in the present embodiment, the floating gate of the memory cell transistor MT is made up of the lower floating gate 112a and the upper floating gate 114a, and the IFD film 113a is provided between the lower floating gate 112a and the upper floating gate 114a. Thereby, a coupling ratio between the upper floating gate 114a and the control gate 116a is improved, to increase an electric field to be applied to the tunnel insulating film 111a, thus leading to improvement in writing characteristics of the memory cell transistor MT. Further, a capacity within a cell increases and the coupling ratio thus become higher, thereby to suppress the adjacent cell interfering effect.
Moreover, the tunnel insulating film 111a and the IFD film 113a become FN (Fowler-Nordheim) films, thereby to suppress an escape of an electric charge within the lower floating gate 112a to the substrate 101 and also suppress an escape of an electric charge within the upper floating gate 114a to the lower floating gate 112a. This allows the memory cell transistor MT to keep holding an electric charge for a long period of time. The memory cell transistor MT can be higher in density while suppressing deterioration in writing characteristics, the adjacent cell interfering effect, the electric charge escape and the like.
As thus described, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to make the density of the memory cell transistor MT higher, while suppressing deterioration in characteristics of the select transistor ST.
Next, a manufacturing method for such a semiconductor storage device will be described using process sectional views shown in
First, as shown in
The insulating film 111 is, for example, a silicon oxide film, a silicon oxy-nitride film or a silicon nitride film. The electrode layers 112, 114 are, for example, made up of polysilicon, polysilicon doped with boracic acid or phosphorus, metal such as TiN, TaN or W, or silicide thereof. The insulating film 113 is, for example, a silicon oxide film, a silicon oxy-nitride film, a silicon nitride film, a Al2O3 film, a HfOx film, a TaOx film, or a La2Ox film.
Subsequently, as shown in
Next, as shown in
Then, in the region where the select transistor ST is provided, the insulating film 115, the electrode layer 114 and the insulating film 113 are removed by lithography and etching (e.g. RIE), to form a groove T2. At this time, part of the electrode layer 112 may be removed. The groove T2 corresponds to the opening that is provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b and the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b of the select transistor ST. Further, since an amount of removal is smaller in a deeper place in typical anisotropic etching, a width of the groove T2 gets narrower toward a lower place. Hence the opening provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b has a smaller width than that of the opening provided in the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b.
Next, as shown in
Next, as shown in
Next, as shown in
This leads to formation of the memory cell transistor MT laminated with the tunnel insulating film 111a, the lower floating gate 112a, the IFD film 113a, the upper floating gate 114a, the IPD film 115a and the control gate 116a.
Further, the tunnel insulating film 111b, the first electrode layer 112b, the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b, the second electrode layer 114b, the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b and the third electrode layer 116b are laminated, to form the select transistor ST connected with the first electrode layer 112b, the second electrode layer 114b and the third electrode layer 116b via the openings provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b and the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b. In the select transistor ST, the third electrode layer 116b is in contact with the first electrode layer 112b and the second electrode layer 114b.
As described above, in the present embodiment, the opening is formed in part of the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b and part of the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b, to connect among the first electrode layer 112b, the second electrode layer 114b and the third electrode layer 116b, and hence the first electrode layer 112b does not hold an electric charge as does the floating gate, allowing prevention of a threshold voltage of the select transistor ST from changing and an erroneous operation from occurring. Further, a voltage corresponding to the tunnel insulating film 111b may be applied for driving the select transistor ST, thus allowing suppression of power consumption.
Moreover, with the floating gate of the memory cell transistor MT made up of the lower floating gate 112a, the IFD film 113a and the upper floating gate 114a, the memory cell transistor MT can be higher in density while suppressing deterioration in writing characteristics, the adjacent cell interfering effect, the electric charge escape and the like.
As thus described, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to make the density of the memory cell transistor MT higher, while suppressing deterioration in characteristics of the select transistor ST.
In the above first embodiment, in the process shown in
A manufacturing method for the semiconductor storage device in the case of forming the opening provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b and the opening provided in the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b in separate processes will be described using process sectional views shown in
First, as shown in
Then, in the region where the select transistor ST is provided, the insulating film 113 is removed by lithography and etching, to form a groove T4. The groove T4 corresponds to the opening that is provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b of the select transistor ST.
Next, as shown in
Subsequently, a mask layer (not shown) is formed on the electrode layer 114, and by lithography and etching, this mask layer is patterned in the form of a plurality of bands along the bit-line BL direction. Then, using the patterned mask layer, the electrode layer 114, the insulating film 113, the electrode layer 112, the insulating film 111 and the substrate 101 are etched, to form a plurality of grooves T1. The mask layer is removed and an insulating film such as a silicon oxide film is embedded in the groove T1, which is then smoothed by CMP (Chemical-Mechanical Polishing), to form the element separated region 130.
Next, as shown in
Next, as shown in
Since subsequent steps are similar to those of the above first embodiment (cf.
In the above first embodiment, in the process shown in
On the other hand, in the present embodiment, in the process of forming the groove T4 shown in
In the above second embodiment, the groove T5 may not be formed immediately above the groove T4. This is because, even when a position (plane position) of the opening provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b and a position (plane position) of the opening provided in the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b are displaced, the first electrode layer 112b, the second electrode layer 114b and the third electrode layer 116b are connected.
In the above first embodiment, the width of the opening provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b is smaller than the width of the opening provided in the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b. However, in the second embodiment, since these openings are formed in the separate processes, the width of the opening provided in the first inter-electrode insulating film 113b can be made equal to or larger than the width of the opening provided in the second inter-electrode insulating film 115b.
Although the mask layer is formed on the electrode layer 114 in formation of the groove T1 in the process shown in
In the above first and second embodiments, the IPD film 115 and the lower surface of the control gate 116 are flat. In other words, the upper surface of the upper floating gate 114 and the upper surface of the element separated region 130 have the same height.
As opposed to this, in the present embodiment, as shown in
Specifically, in the processes shown in
Forming the configuration as shown in
In the above first to third embodiments, as shown in
It is to be noted that in the case of providing the charge trap film 150a on the upper floating gate 114a, a film 150b made of the same material as the charge trap film 150a is formed in the select transistor ST.
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 methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems 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 |
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2012-051780 | Mar 2012 | JP | national |