This application claims the benefits of prior Chinese Patent Application No. 201210135857.5 filed on May 3, 2012, titled “SEMICONDUCTOR STRUCTURE AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor technology. In particular, the present invention relates to a semiconductor structure and a method for manufacturing the same.
With the development of the manufacturing technology of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits with higher performance and greater functionality require a higher component density, and the dimension, size and space of various parts, components or individual components also need to be further scaled down (which may reach the nanometer level at present). Since the 90 nm CMOS IC process, as the feature size of the device becomes smaller continuously, Strain Channel Engineering is playing an increasingly important role in improving the channel carrier mobility. Various uniaxial technology induced stresses are integrated into the device process.
Normally, the Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) process including liner forming, dielectric filling and Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) planarization will induce compressive stress to adjacent active regions. It will induce compressive strain in the longitudinal direction of the device channel and subsequently, result in a mobility enhancing in PMOS and degrading in NMOS. As the device dimensions are reduced as the requirement of device scaling method, it will take a more serious effect.
To reduce this effect in the conventional STI structure, commonly used methods include low-stressed dielectric like F-doped HDP dielectric filling in STI and forming removable liner by oxidation, and the like. However, it is desirable to make a new STI structure which allows producing stress effect on both NMOS and PMOS to improve device performance.
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a semiconductor structure and a corresponding manufacturing method thereof. STI's having different cross-sectional structures according to the device types, e.g., STI's having different cross-sectional structures in the PMOS region and NMOS region are formed to introduce compressive stress and tensile stress to the channel regions of PMOS and NMOS, respectively, such that stress can be applied to both NMOS and PMOS to improve device performance.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor structure is provided, comprising:
a substrate;
a gate stack located on the substrate, and comprising at least a gate dielectric layer and a gate electrode layer;
source/drain regions located in the substrate on both sides of the gate stack;
Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) structures located in the substrate on both sides of the source/drain regions, wherein the cross-section of the STI structures are trapezoidal, Sigma-shaped or inverted trapezoidal depending on the type of the semiconductor structure.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of manufacturing the semiconductor structure is provided, comprising:
providing a substrate;
forming a plurality of STI structures in the substrate to divide the substrate surface into at least one active region, wherein the cross-section of the STI structures are trapezoidal, Sigma-shaped or inverted trapezoidal depending on the type of the semiconductor structure to be formed in adjacent active regions; and
forming a gate stack and source/drain regions corresponding to the type of the semiconductor structure to be formed on a respective active region.
Compared with the prior art, the technical solution provided by the present invention has the following advantages: STI structures having different shapes can be combined with different stress fillers to apply tensile stress or compressive stress laterally to the channel, which will produce a positive impact on electron mobility of NMOS and hole mobility of PMOS and increase the channel current of the device, thereby effectively improving the performance of the semiconductor structure.
Other characteristics, objectives and advantages of the invention will become more obvious after reading the detailed description of the non-limiting embodiments with reference to the following attached drawings, in which:
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more details.
Some embodiments are illustrated in the attached drawings, in which the same or similar reference numbers represent the same or similar elements or the components having the same or similar functions. The following embodiments described with reference to the drawings are only exemplary for explaining the present invention, and therefore shall not be construed as limiting the present invention. The disclosure below provides many different embodiments or examples to implement different structures of the present invention. In order to simplify the disclosure of the present invention, components and settings of specific examples are described below. Obviously, they are merely exemplary, and are not intended to limit the present invention. In addition, reference numbers and/or letters can be repeated in different examples of the invention. This repetition is used only for brevity and clarity, and does not indicate any relationship between the discussed embodiments and/or settings. Furthermore, the invention provides a variety of specific examples of processes and materials, but it is obvious to a person skilled in the art that other processes can be applied and/or other materials can be used. In addition, the following description of a structure where a first feature is “on” a second feature can comprise examples where the first and second features are in direct contact, and also can comprise examples where additional features are formed between the first and second features so that the first and second features may not be in direct contact.
According to one aspect of the invention, a semiconductor structure is provided (please refer to the cross-sectional views in
In one embodiment, a liner is formed on the inner side of the STI structure 120.
If the semiconductor structure is PMOS (see
In one embodiment, the source/drain regions (350) are raised source/drain regions, the shapes of which are square or Sigma-shaped.
For PMOS, the STI structure 120 whose cross-section is is trapezoidal or Sigma-shaped may apply a compressive stress to the channel region of the device, thereby increasing the mobility of the channel carrier. For NMOS, the STI structure 120 whose cross-section is inverted trapezoidal may apply a tensile stress to the channel region of the device, thereby also increasing the mobility of the channel carrier. Therefore, the semiconductor structure of the present invention can increase the mobility of the channel carrier of both PMOS devices and NMOS devices.
The manufacturing method of the semiconductor structure according to the present invention is described below with reference to
First, a substrate 100 is provided.
In this embodiment, the substrate 100 is single crystal silicon. In other embodiments, the substrate layer 100 may further comprise other basic semiconductors such as germanium, or other compound semiconductors such as silicon carbide, gallium arsenide, indium arsenide or indium phosphide. Typically, the thickness of the substrate layer 100 may be, but not limited to, about a few hundred microns, for example, in the range of 0.2 mm to 1 mm.
Then, a plurality of STI structures 120 are formed in the substrate to divide the surface of the substrate into at least one active region, wherein the cross-section of the STI structure is trapezoidal, Sigma-shaped or inverted trapezoidal depending on the type of the semiconductor structure to be formed by the adjacent active region.
In this embodiment, the etching process can be a selective etching method such as reactive ion etching (RIE).
Specifically, if the semiconductor structure to be formed in adjacent active region is PMOS, then a shallow trench 130 whose cross-section is trapezoidal can be formed, as shown in
In addition, if the semiconductor structure to be formed in the adjacent active region is PMOS, a shallow trench whose cross-section is Sigma-shaped can also be formed. The specific process may include anisotropic dry etching, for example, the above-mentioned RIE etching to form a shallow trench, and then applying the TMAH (tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide solution) crystal orientation selective corrosion to form a Sigma shape with multiple crystalline surfaces, as shown in
If the semiconductor structure to be formed in the adjacent active region is NMOS, then a shallow trench whose cross-section is inverted trapezoidal can be formed, as shown in
Specifically, by gradually increasing the gas flow, increasing the pressure and reducing the power so as to gradually increase the lateral etching amount (the lateral etched thickness) of isotropic etching with the proceeding of the etching, the inverted trapezoid with α<90° is formed based on the common vertical etching. For example, the angle α between side edge and bottom edge of the inverted trapezoid may be close to 45° with the pressure of 350-500 mtor, Cl2 of 150-300 sccm, and O2 of 10-30 sccm, as shown in
In addition, through this embodiment, those skilled in the art may easily conceive that the cross-section of the shallow trench is not limited to trapezoidal or Sigma-shaped, but includes other shapes which is may enable manipulation of stress in the active region among the adjacent STI structures, e.g., the side is not linear, but has a certain curvature (concave or outside concave).
After the STI structure having a trapezoidal, Sigma-shaped or inverted trapezoidal cross-section is formed, a liner 110 is formed in the trench 130 prior to filling of the trench insulating material, as shown in
The liner can be formed by oxidation or deposition, where the deposition materials can be one of Ta, TaN, Ti, TiN and Ru, or any combination thereof. The liner can have a thickness of 2-15 nm. The liner 110 can release the stress generated during the STI etching process.
Afterwards, the HDP (High Density Plasma) process can be used for filling of the trench insulation material selected from SiO2, Si3N4, and F-doped low-stress dielectric, etc. The above process of forming different liners and filling of different trench insulating material can easily regulate the magnitude of the stress to the active region, thus regulating the stress in the channel region of the MOS transistor to be formed in the active region later. Thus, the STI structure 120 which can apply a first stress to the channel can be formed, as shown in
In short, the shape of the shallow trench is adjusted by controlling the etching parameters and filling of different trench insulating materials which can easily adjust the magnitude of the stress to the active region, thereby regulating the stress in the channel region of the MOS transistor to be formed in the active region later. At the same time, combination with other stress mechanisms may obtain desired channel stress.
Subsequently, a gate stack and source/drain regions corresponding to the type of the semiconductor structure to be formed can be formed on the active region, as shown in
First, a gate dielectric layer 200 is formed on the substrate 100. In this embodiment, the gate dielectric layer 200 can be formed from silicon oxide, silicon nitride, or any combination thereof. In other embodiments, it can also be a high-K dielectric, for example, one of HfO2, HfSiO, HfSiON, HfTaO, HfTiO, HfZrO, Al2O3, La2O3, ZrO2, LaAlO or any combination thereof with a thickness of 2 nm to 10 nm. Then, a dummy gate 210 is formed on the gate dielectric layer 200, for example, by depositing a polycrystalline silicon, polycrystalline SiGe, amorphous silicon, and/or doped or undoped silicon oxide and silicon nitride, silicon oxynitride, silicon carbide, or even metal. In another embodiment, the dummy gate stack can also have a dummy gate only and have no gate dielectric layer 200, where the gate dielectric layer is formed by removing the dummy gate in the subsequent replacement gate process.
Then, source/drain regions can be formed on both sides of the dummy gate stack.
The source/drain extension 310 can be first formed in the substrate 100 on both sides of dummy gate stack.
Specifically, as shown in
Afterwards, source/drain regions 350 can be formed in the substrate 100 on both sides of the source/drain extension 310.
Specifically, as shown in
Then, as shown in
In other embodiments, the source/drain regions can also be formed on both sides of the dummy gate stack by implanting P-type or N-type dopants or impurities into the substrate 100.
Then, the semiconductor structure is subject to annealing so as to activate the dopants in the source/drain regions 310. Annealing can be performed by using rapid annealing, spike annealing and other appropriate methods. Of course, the semiconductor structure can also be annealed after the source/drain extension has been formed.
Subsequently, the manufacturing of the semiconductor structure is completed in accordance with the conventional manufacturing process steps (please refer to
Although the exemplified embodiments and the advantages thereof have been illustrated in detail, it is understood that any modification, replacement and change can be made to these embodiments without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope defined in the attaching claims. As to other examples, a person skilled in the art can easily understand that the order of the process steps can be modified without falling outside the protection scope of the invention.
In addition, the application fields of the invention are not limited to the processes, mechanism, fabrication, material composition, means, methods and steps in the particular embodiments as given in the description. From the disclosure of the invention, a person skilled in the art can easily understand that, as for the processes, mechanism, fabrication, material composition, means, methods or steps present or to be developed, which are carried out to realize substantially the same function or obtain substantially the same effects as the corresponding examples described according to the invention, such processes, mechanism, fabrication, material composition, means, methods or steps can be applied according to the invention. Therefore, the claims attached to the invention are intended to encompass the processes, mechanism, fabrication, material composition, means, methods or steps is into the protection scope thereof.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201210135857.5 | May 2012 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/CN2012/075602 | 5/16/2012 | WO | 00 | 3/21/2014 |